Most Americans may be optimistic about their new president, but a majority also have little or no hope that Barack Obama will fare any better than his predecessors when it comes to brokering a peace deal between Israel and the Arab world.
Fifty-one percent of respondents in a poll commissioned by the McClatchy newspaper chain said they were either "not too confident" or "not confident at all" that Obama will succeed in overseeing a viable final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Only 42 percent felt to one degree or another that Obama did have a realistic chance to broker a peace deal.
The reason that Obama is likely to fail in this endeavor was linked to another question asked in the survey - whether or not the US should continue to push the land-for-peace formula that is predicated on the creation of a sovereign Palestinian Arab state.
According to the poll, 45 percent of Americans do not believe their government should advocate the creation of a Palestinian state, but only 31 percent favor that approach.