Washington: Though his top intelligence
brass failed to detect the botched Christmas Day attempt to
blow up a US airliner, most Americans remain confident that
President Barack Obama can protect the country from terrorism,
according to a new national poll.
Nearly two-thirds of people questioned in the poll said
they have a moderate or great deal of confidence in the Obama
administration to protect the public from future terrorist
attacks, up 2 percentage points from August.
Thirty-five per cent said they have not much or no
confidence, down 1 percentage point from August.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey also indicates the
vast majority of Americans believe that full-body scanners
should be used in airports across the country.
A number of Republicans have criticised Obama over his
handling of the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight
253 from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to Detroit, Michigan.
It was "a screw-up that could have been disastrous" and
should have been avoided, Obama had said while criticising the
intelligence brass for their failure to prevent the incident.
But according to the survey, 57 per cent approve of the
way Obama has responded, while 39 per cent disapprove of how
he handled the situation.
"Only a third of Republicans have a positive view of
Obama on this matter, but the key for the administration is
the 55 per cent of independents who approve of how the
president responded to the incident on Christmas Day," said
Keating Holland, CNN's polling director.
This number continued to decline even more precipitously
in 2009, when CEO turnover declined 27 per cent, CFO 36 per
cent and overall C-level turnover decreased 30 per cent
compared with 2008's low levels.
The declines in executive management took place amid
overall unemployment in the United States and Canada
continuing to increase in 2008 and 2009.
By the end of 2009, with the recession statistically
over, the United States had, according to the US Bureau of
Labor Statistics, an overall unemployment rate of 10 per
cent-- one of the highest for the last few decades.
Liberum expects that once the economy begins to truly
recover, the level of executive turnover will begin to rise.
Both the pent up demand for new top executives and the
possibilities for new job opportunities will account for
growing executive turnover.
The continuing declines in executive turnover were seen
both on a quarterly and annual basis, the report said.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, January 12, 2010, 20:14