Obama Approval up to 55%

Via CNN:  Obama approval hits new high

President Barack Obama’s approval rating stands at 55% in a new CNN/ORC poll, the highest mark of his second term, and matching his best at any time since his first year in office.

The new rating outpaces his previous second-term high — reached just after a Democratic convention that extolled the successes of his presidency — by one point, and hits a level he’s reached just twice since the end of his first year in office: In January 2013 just before his second inauguration and in January 2011.
This is interesting because the presidential approval rating is, among other things, a proxy for how citizens think things are going at a given point in time.  We also know that views of the incumbent influence the vote for candidates of the president’s party.
FILED UNDER: 2016 Election, US Politics, , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Andrew says:

    Gallup has Congress’ approval rating at 20%. Last month. 76% Disapproval. This was before the 9/11 bill veto.
    http://www.gallup.com/poll/1600/congress-public.aspx

    Maybe republicans had a very good reason for wanting to make Obama a 1-term president. Seems Obama’s long game was far too much for even the most veteran of Republican Congressional leadership.

  2. DrDaveT says:

    In a reversal of the usual mechanism, Obama is benefiting from how good he looks when compared to the current candidates. The “wow, it really could have been a lot worse” effect.

    (This, of course, does not apply to those who know that he’s a gay Kenyan muslim child-stealing communist.)

  3. @DrDaveT: There may well be something to that.

  4. al-Alameda says:

    Not that objective facts matter any more but, in light of where this country was when the president was inaugurated in 2009 and where we are in 2016, it’s hard to not conclude that the president has done well.

    When Obama was inaugurated unemployment was rocketing above 10%, we were losing jobs at a rate of over 700,000 per month, the credit markets were locked up, the NYSE-DJIA had plunged below 8,000, the real estate and housing market had lost over 20% of it’s value, and the wealth of American households and businesses was diminished by $18 trillion or nearly 25%. Obama stayed the course of supporting liquidity in the banking system, and did not allow the auto industry to take the hit of a bankruptcy the time of peak job losses and unemployment.

    History will judge Obama kindly, and the Republican Congress not so kindly.

  5. david says:

    Can’t wait to see those ‘Miss Me Yet?’ billboards popping up early next year… 🙂

  6. Nikki says:

    When RWNJs scoff at Obama’s 3% economic growth, I tell them to imagine where the economy would be if Obama had had a Republican Congress that didn’t put party over country.

  7. C. Clavin says:

    I remember when Mataconis did a full post every time Obama’s approval rating dipped in the least little bit.
    It equals his highest since his first year in office…crickets.
    Just sayin’

  8. C. Clavin says:

    @al-Alameda:

    History will judge Obama kindly, and the Republican Congress not so kindly.

    If you ask me the Republican Congress is nigh treasonous…and I’m willing to bet history will agree.

  9. Hal_10000 says:

    Obama is very likable when you strip the partisan BS away. He is going to be a very popular ex-President. And in ten years, a lot of Republicans will be saying, “Well, he wasn’t that bad actually.” This is, until they ramp up for Malia 2036.