A new ABC News/Washington Post poll found that President Obama’s job approval rating has jumped nine points in a single month, and is now 50%-44%.
According to ABC News:
Americans approve of the president’s job performance by 50-44 percent in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, a remarkable 9-point gain in approval and a 10-point drop in disapproval just since December. It’s his best rating in a year and a half, and matches his previous best one-time advance, after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in spring 2011.
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The economy is driving these changes. Three months ago just 27 percent said it was in good shape. Today 41 percent say so, the most since April 2007, before the onset of the Great Recession and its long aftermath. People who rate the economy positively are vastly more likely than others to approve of the president’s performance and the country’s direction alike.
The president’s approval ratings are up 19 points with people age 18-29, 13 points with non-whites, including 22 points with Hispanics, 12 points with people earning less than $50,000 a year, 10 points with Democrats, 13 points with non-college educated white men, 11 points with men and 11 points with conservatives.
The number of people who think the country is on the wrong track has hit its lowest level since 2012, and the number of people who feel that the economy is in good shape has hit its highest point since 2007 (41%). The number of people who expressed a positive view of the economy has increased by 14 points since October. Republicans have lost eight points of trust in the past month as the president is now trusted more than the GOP to handle the issues of the day (40%-36%). The president’s approval rating on the economy has increased by 6 points and stood at 48%/48%.
The public now believes that Obama is the stronger leader than congressional Republicans (42%-40%) and that the country should follow his direction (35%-34%).
The ABC News/Washington Post poll is the fourth consecutive major poll showing that the president’s approval ratings are increasing. Polls from CNN/ORC, CBS News, and Gallup all revealed major increases in President Obama’s job approval.
One of the conclusions from this wealth of data in these polls is that the media and Republicans have greatly overblown the meaning of the 2014 election. The 2014 election wasn’t a rebuke of the president and Democrats. The midterm was an election that was contested in heavily Republican territory. The election results spoke more to the extreme partisan divides in the country than to any broad national message.
The poll found President Obama is doing better than Bill Clinton on leadership, George W. Bush on approval rating, and he is even with Ronald Reagan’s job approval rating at the same point in their presidencies. The president is on the rise, and the growing economy powering him to new highs as the nation enters the homestretch of his presidency.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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