Obama 1 year later: US still hopeful?

WASHINGTON - A year ago, crowds gathered in Chicago's Grant Park to celebrate President Obama's election victory. The atmosphere was decidedly hopeful. But a year later, Americans are increasingly expressing feelings of frustration and disappointment.

A daily survey by USA Today/Gallup finds that Obama's approval rating is consistently at 50 percent or a little above, but it's a drop from the sky-high numbers Obama saw when he was first elected.

Americans reported in a Gallup survey that they are much less positive about what Obama will be able to accomplish during his term, with the biggest drop being in healing political divisions in the country -- a year ago, 54 percent believed he would heal them. Now 28 percent believe it will happen.

"There's a kind of realism that's taken over, that 'the change you can believe in' -- people have woken up and seen that as kind of a talking point, and I think there's some disappointment, some deflation," Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, told USA Today . "On the other hand, when you take into account he's been president during the sharpest economic decline since the Great Depression, it's astounding that his support is not weaker."

The New York Times reports that a year ago right before the election, people described their feelings as "hopeful" and "anxious." Respondents posted on the Times' blog that they are now feeling "disappointed."

"Lots of talk, little action, failed policies, waffling over his original commitments," wrote reader robert .

Dk added, "I am fed up with Obama and the Democrats negotiating and compromising with themselves -- they are the only ones at the table. Time to move forward without those who aren't along for the ride anyway!"

But others said they were "surprised" at people's criticisms of Obama.

"I am surprised at how much ignorance passes for reality. I have hope though as long as Obama remains as persistent as he has been that the goals he set forth will be realized," said Ron M.

Amanda Satterfield, a homemaker in Battle Creek, Mich., kept her faith in Obama. "Basically, I think he's doing extremely well, considering," Satterfield told USA Today . "You have to give somebody a chance to get situated and acclimated with his duties and responsibilities. He went in expecting to work, and I think he has been working."

While many Americans' attitudes toward Obama have changed, Obama's staffers maintain their boss' attitude hasn't changed. " He hasn't changed that much,'' White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told CNN . "He's still the same person that we went to work for ....I think it's remarkable that all of what has transpired in our lives as a result of what's happened in the last year has done remarkably little to change the person that we went to work for."

Added Obama adviser David Axelrod, "I think the only manifestation that I've seen is that his hair is a little grayer. And maybe that's where he channels it...maybe that's where he channels the pressure."