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George W. Bush, President Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office of the White House.

A result, from a USA Today/Gallup poll out Friday, could not have gone over well with Obama's political strategists.

"The fact that less than half of Americans say Obama has been a better president than Bush, given the low regard Americans have for the Bush presidency, poses a clear challenge for Obama," Gallup's website declared in a breakdown of the poll, which surveyed 1,004 Americans, living in all 50 states, from Sept. 15-18.

Those surveyed were asked to rate Obama's presidency against Bush's, and also against Bill Clinton's, by choosing one of three answers: better, worse or about the same.

The problem for Obama is that too many - 22% of those surveyed - gave the same-as-Bush answer. Bush left office dogged by widespread discontent and bleak economic developments, creating a national angst that Obama rode to the White through his promise of change.

So for Obama, as an incumbent, and especially one who vowed he would improve the country's lot, the same-as-Bush answer is really a negative response.

And as the Gallup analysis points out, Obama needs to convince voters that the country is better off now than it was the day Bush permanently traded the Oval Office for his Texas ranch.

"The outcome of presidential elections, particularly for incumbent presidents, largely turns on performance evaluations," the analysis reads. "If Americans are generally happy with the state of the nation, they are generally likely to re-elect the incumbent. If they are dissatisfied, the incumbent is at risk of defeat."

Only 12% said they believe Obama is doing a better job than Bill Clinton. Among Democrats, only 20% said Obama tops Clinton, but 51% said they were about the same.

Obama, predictably, took a pounding among Republicans, with just 9% saying he has been a better chief executive than Bush. Among Independents, that percentage was somewhat better but by no means encouraging: 33%.

With the election little more than a year away, Obama is staring at a lengthy campaign checklist, topped by the need to quiet liberal disenchantment and to play up the moves he made that many political observers credit with pulling the economy back from the brink of full-blown depression.

But, as Obama maneuvers for a second term against the backdrop of bitter partisan bickering on the Hill, the dreadful economy is a major problem for him, as the Gallup analysis stresses.

"Voters may give Obama more leeway because of the poor state of the nation when he took office; and as of now, they appear to be doing so, as Americans still blame Bush more than Obama for the country's economic problems," according to the analysis, citing an earlier poll.

That poll, also by USA Today/Gallup earlier this week, found that 7 out of 10 Americans blame Bush either a great deal or a moderate amount for the current economic mess. But that poll also found that 53% assigned blame to Obama for the economy.

And while Obama has time to make improvements and sway voters, as the Gallup analysis suggests, there is another way of looking at things, as former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller outlined in a column.

"In our political culture, if you inherit a problem and do not fix it, you own it," Keller wrote in a piece posted on todayonline.com.

"So at some point it became the popular wisdom that Iraq and Afghanistan were 'Obama's wars,' and that the recession had become 'Obama's economy.'"