Recently, New American Media released a poll that showed that the perceptions of the effectiveness of President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package differed dramatically between racial groups. While less than 40 percent of whites, Hispanics and Native Americans said the stimulus has made the economy better, 59 percent of African-Americans and 47 percent of Asian-Americans said that it had.

“The American public currently believes that the stimulus package has not had a major impact on the national economy,” wrote pollster Sergio Bendixen in his analysis of the survey. “Only African-Americans believe that President Obama’s stimulus package ‘has made the economy better.’”

The poll broke along similar lines when respondents were asked how the stimulus package affected their family or local community.

In total, 54 percent said the stimulus package has been ‘a good thing for their family or local community’ while 27 percent said it was ‘a bad thing’ and 19 percent either did not know or had no opinion.

Only 45 percent of the white Americans polled, however, thought the stimulus has been a good thing compared to 36 percent who think it was a bad thing. But among African Americans, 84 percent said the stimulus was a good thing and only 4 percent said the opposite.

Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian Americans all polled above 60 percent in concluding that the stimulus was a good thing.

Asian-Americans trailed the other two groups, with 62 percent concluding that the stimulus was a good thing, 10 percent saying it was a bad thing and 28 percent did not know or had no opinion. Hispanics and Native Americans polled identically at 67 percent good, 11 percent bad and 22 percent did not know or had no opinion.

Unfortunately, for the Obama Administration, the articles points out there could be trouble ahead.

“People are not seeing evidence of the stimulus package in their communities. Here we have the biggest public investment in the great depression and people are confused about what’s in it and what’s in it for them,” said Aaron Glantz, who helped direct the poll for New America Media.

“People feel like the train has left the station and they’re left sitting on the platform, even though that’s not true,” he added. “The Obama administration is really missing an opportunity to explain to them what’s in the stimulus package.”