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Three new polls are out, and all convey the same message: Progress in Washington has stalled, partly because President Obama is more popular than his policies.

Take the CBS News/New York Times poll, which gave the president an overall approval rating of 63 percent. Obama gets just shy of 60 percent approval on foreign policy and terrorism, his strongest issues. His economic rating is holding up reasonably well (57 percent approval), even though the prevailing sentiment is that the president's economic policies have not yet had much effect.

On health care, Obama's ratings are less than 50 percent. Many Americans are not yet familiar with his health care proposals.

The president gets his worst marks on his handling of the auto industry (41 percent approval). The public doesn't like bailouts. "Some of those things are popular; some of those things are not popular," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs commented in response to the poll. "I think the president would tell you that he's going to do what he thinks is in the best interest of the American economy."

Bottom line? In the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, three-quarters of Americans said they like Obama. But only about half (51 percent) said they support his policies.

People think that the economic recovery may be slowing. From February to May, more Americans began to think that the economy was getting better (5 percent in February, 26 percent in April, 32 percent in May), according to the CBS/Times poll. But now the number of optimists has dwindled a bit -- to 27 percent.

The Pew Research Center poll? From January to May, the number of people who said they were satisfied with the way things are going in the country increased from 20 percent to 34 percent. Now the number has sagged to 30 percent.

"I suggest we not move forward [on health care reform] until we have some provision as to how we are going to pay for it." -- Sen. John McCain

Likewise, in the NBC/Journal poll, 59 percent of respondents in January said that the country was on the wrong track. By April, that figure had dipped to 43 percent. And now? It's back up slightly, to 46 percent.

Gibbs responds, "I think the American people are rightly anxious and concerned about the economy, just as the president is."

The polls also show growing concern over the federal budget deficit. In the CBS/Times poll, people say that reducing the deficit is more important than spending money to stimulate the national economy (52 percent to 41 percent). In the NBC/Journal poll, 58 percent say that the president and Congress should worry more about keeping the budget deficit down than about boosting the economy.

But Americans do not fault Obama for the budget deficit. Asked who is most responsible for the federal deficit, 46 percent blamed the Bush administration in the NBC/Journal poll. Only 6 percent blamed the Obama administration. "We have accumulated a structural deficit that is going to take a long time [to reduce]," Obama said.

Meanwhile, health care reform appears to have stalled after the Congressional Budget Office came up with a startling $1.6 trillion price tag for one plan the Senate is considering. That bottom line emboldened critics such as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who said, "I suggest we not move forward until we have some provision as to how we are going to pay for it."

What's needed is a greater sense of public urgency. Otherwise, as Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said, "for those of us who were here in 1994, this is deja vu all over again. This is 'Hillarycare-plus.' " In 1993, according to the Pew poll, most Americans said that the nation's health care system needed to be completely rebuilt (55 percent). By the time the debate ended in 1994, fewer than 40 percent felt that way. Now just 41 percent favor reform.

Democrats are trying to increase the sense of urgency. "If we do not fix our health care system, America may go the way of [General Motors]," Obama warned in a speech to the American Medical Association.

Organizing for America, the president's citizen lobbying organization, has begun to rally grassroots support for overhauling the health care system. Supporters are running TV ads promoting "a public health insurance option to lower costs and keep insurance companies honest." But the president has said, "As clear as it is that our system badly needs reform, reform is not inevitable."