Obama basks in political honeymoon

Barack Obama is riding the crest of the best approval ratings of any president-elect in decades, a new poll showed on Wednesday as the next US leader relaxed on his Hawaii Christmas vacation.

Less than a month before Obama takes office in the teeth of the worst economic slump since the 1930s, a new CNN/Opinion Research survey found 82 percent of Americans approve of how he is handling his transition to power.

Obama's rating is higher than President George W. Bush's corresponding figure of 65 percent after the disputed 2000 election and higher than the 67 percent posted by Bill Clinton in 1992.