Betsy Osborn not only gets frustrated when she hears President Obama talk about the economy, she gets angry.
"I don't think you can spend your way to a prosperous economy," says the 56-year-old dental hygienist from Albemarle.
"If I handled my finances the way Washington handles theirs, I would have already been arrested for writing bad checks."
Osborn is among 81 percent of N.C. voters who say that despite last year's $787 billion stimulus package, the administration's actions have either hurt the economy or had little effect.
And 54 percent believe the economy is on the wrong track, according to a new Charlotte Observer/WCNC-TV poll of 625 registered voters.
Heading into a mid-term election, the survey reflects problems for Democrats. But it also suggests pitfalls for both major parties. Among the findings:
Though Obama narrowly carried North Carolina in 2008, only 38 percent say they would probably or definitely vote for him today. Fifty-seven percent rate his performance as fair or poor.
A January survey by Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling found 44 percent of N.C. voters approved the president's job performance while 50 percent were unhappy with it.
The economy far outweighs anything else as the most important issue facing the country, according to poll respondents. And only 24 percent said they believe the economy is on the right track.
A slim majority of voters - 51 percent - do not want Congress to change health care this year. At the same time, 67 percent say at least some changes are needed to control costs and expand coverage.
Though 80 percent of voters have heard of state and federal corruption investigations involving former Democratic Gov. Mike Easley and others, only 36 percent primarily associate the allegations with Democrats. Forty-two percent say both parties share the blame.
Opinion split
On the economy, some North Carolinians give Obama the benefit of the doubt.
"They were in a very tough position when Obama came into office, and had they not taken those steps they took right at the beginning of his presidency, we'd be in worse shape than we are now," says independent voter Augustine Acevedo, a 47-year-old workforce manager of a Charlotte insurance company.
"Unfortunately it took us a while to get into this situation and it's going to take us a while to get out."
Democrat Richard Schenck, 78, a retired diplomat from Chapel Hill, says the administration "averted a Great Depression."
"The problem is not the president but the Congress," he says, "particularly the Republican side of it."
But others fault Obama for escalating federal spending.
"My grandkids are going to be paying for this," says Ronald Williams, 77, a retiree from Concord. "How are we going to make up this deficit? ...
"For one thing, he should not have bailed out the auto industry ... Same thing with the banking industry. Look what they did with the stimulus money. Turned around and paid it out as bonuses."
To Kathy Smith, a retired teacher from Conover, America's debt is "increasing exponentially" while the economy shows little sign of turning.
"In Catawba County, things are just terrible," says Smith, 61. "Everywhere we turn, budgets are being cut and schools are having to turn back money and unemployment is still way up there. And I don't see it improving."
Neither does John Smalley. The 60-year-old retired businessman from Statesville says the bailouts have left the government back where it started.
"What they've done is bail out 'too-big-to-fail' and made them too big to fail again," he says.
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