Americans like seeing President Barack Obama finally tackle Afghanistan _ even if most don't support his plans.

The latest Associated Press-GfK poll shows the president's marks for handling the eight-year-old war have jumped by double digits _ more than half now approve _ since he capped a three-month strategy review by announcing a big troop increase. He said he would boost U.S. forces in Afghanistan to 100,000 _ and begin bringing them home in July 2011.

But despite his prime-time TV speech explaining how he reached his decision, there was no change in the public's resistance to escalation. Just 42 percent favor sending more troops while 56 percent oppose it, essentially unchanged from November.

The findings suggest limits to Obama's persuasive skills _ and underscore what's seemingly become the public's default position in his first year in office: People like him, but they're squeamish about his policy.

"These were tough decisions this guy had to make," said Steve Pollaro, 67, a bus driver from Torrance, Calif., praising Obama for showing leadership. But Pollaro _ a registered Republican who calls himself a recent Democratic convert _ is lukewarm at best on the new strategy itself. He opposes a public timeline for beginning a withdrawal and reluctantly backs the troop increase _ on grounds that Obama knows more than he does.

Others, like Democrat Scott Hanson, 30, a state employee from Duluth, Minn., give Obama a thumbs-up for leading on Afghanistan but are absolutely against the escalation. Said Hanson: "I just don't feel that threatened, so I don't think we really need 30,000 more troops."

And there still are a large number of people who feel just the opposite. Take independent Larry Sass, 62, a UPS store manager from East Hartford, Conn., who says: "It's good he sent the troops, but he took too long to do it and I wish he would show more backbone."

Overall, most people _ and most of Obama's fellow Democrats _ don't think Afghanistan is a conflict worth fighting. But Obama is pressing ahead despite such polling. He told CBS' "60 Minutes" that he ordered more troops "because I think it's the right thing to do. And that's my job. If I was worried about what polled well, there are a whole bunch of things we wouldn't have done this year."

The poll respondents' conflicting viewpoints reflect the complexity of the issues surrounding Afghanistan and underscore the challenge the novice commander in chief faces as he seeks to persuade a skeptical Congress to continue paying for war and an impatient public to stick with him heading into his first midterm congressional election year.