Obama's economy speech: Can he sell optimism to a pessimistic public?

The financial sector is well on its way to recovery, right? After all, it has been a year since Wall Street almost collapsed, and the government is now ready, willing, and able to stop such a situation from happening again. President Obama and Congress are telling us that everything is moving in the right direction -- so Americans must be feeling more confident about the economic future, right? Wrong.

According to a new Associated Press-GfK poll, seven out of 10 Americans do not believe the government has taken the proper safeguards to keep last September's horrors from repeating. Furthermore, 80 percent of those polled feel the economy is in poor shape -- and members of this group worry that they may not be able to keep their heads above water.