President Barack Obama made history as the first black man to be elected president of the United States on the first Tuesday of November 2008.

He did it with 53 percent of the vote. And today, on the first Tuesday of November 2009 as voters go to the polls for a handful of off-year elections, his approval rating is in pretty much the same spot: 54 percent, according to a CNN poll.

“In nearly every demographic category, the percent that approve of Obama today is within two to three points of the percent who voted for him in 2008,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

What does that mean? The upshot appears to be that the first-term Democrat has built up a reservoir of goodwill among Americans.

That’s a bit ironic because the poll also found that most Americans disapprove of his performance on most issues. Those would be things like the economy and healthcare and Afghanistan and Iraq and unemployment and illegal immigration and the budget deficit.

In fact, the poll found that a majority of Americans have a positive view of Obama on only three of 14 issues: the environment, the H1N1 swine flu pandemic and overall foreign policy. 

But six in 10 say Obama inspires confidence in them and describe him as a strong, honest, trustworthy leader.  Overall, he gets the thumbs up on 11 out of 12 personal characteristics. 

Did someone mention his predecessor, George W. Bush? Oh, yeah, fifty-seven percent see Obama as the better president while a third favor Bush. 

People prefer Joe over Dick, too. By 24 percentage points, the poll said Americans consider Joe Biden to be a better vice president than Dick Cheney. 

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 with 1,018 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The results have a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Photo Credits: Reuters/Gary Hershorn (Candidate Obama); Reuters/Larry Downing (President Obama)