Poll: Obama Overexposed? Most Say No

(CBS)

President Obama has been on a major media offensive in recent weeks, appearing on news programs and talk shows, speaking to Congress in prime time and around the country, and even showing up on on late night television. The public relations campaign on behalf of his health care reform and other initiatives has prompted pundits to question whether the president has become overexposed.

A new CBS News/New York Times survey suggests that most Americans do not think so. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed said Mr. Obama has made about the right number of appearances, while an additional four percent say he has made too few.

Thirty-five percent do believe that the president has made too many appearances. But that's exactly the same percentage as disapproved of the president in a CBS News poll earlier this month – and it's likely that any presidential appearances would be too many for at least some members of that group.

Fewer than one in five Democrats say the president has made too many appearances, while more than half of Republicans say he has done so. Among independents the figure is 40 percent.

Young Americans are most likely to say the president is making the right number of public appearances, with 65 percent saying so. Nearly half of those 65 or older, by contrast, believe he is making too many such appearances, the highest percentage of any group.

Read the Complete Poll

This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1042 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone September 19-23, 2009. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.