Three in four Americans believe that President-elect Barack Obama is making strong, thoughtful decisions as he prepares to take over as the nation’s 44th commander in chief, a new poll shows.

When George W. Bush took the helm of power in 2001, six in 10 Americans saw him as a strong and decisive leader. Obama’s strongest suit, according to the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, is his ability to inspire and his apparent honesty.

"That's the best number an incoming president has gotten on that dimension since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "The public's rating of his leadership skills is already as high as George W. Bush's was after 9/11 and easily beats the numbers that both Bush and Bill Clinton got at the start of their first terms in office."

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Bush’s public confidence level rose to three in four. When Bill Clinton took office in January 1993, 77 percent of Americans thought he was a strong leader.

Now, some 80 percent of Americans believe “Obama inspires confidence, can get things done and is tough enough to be president, three characteristics Americans look for in a leader and the three qualities on which Obama got his highest scores,” CNN reports. And when it comes to honesty, values, issues, management abilities and compassion, Obama also beats Bush out, hands down.

The roughly two in three who say they admire Obama – for which he received his lowest score – matches the highest that Bush got when respondents were asked similar questions just after he took office eight years ago.

"But it is Obama's ability to inspire confidence and the perception that he is tough enough for the job that may be most important for him as the country faces fresh challenges abroad and a historically harsh economic downturn," Holland said.