Obama’s Approval Rating Hits 7-Year High

CNN reports:

Obama’s approval rating in the poll stands at 57%, his highest since September 2009. That figure is on par with Ronald Reagan’s approval rating shortly after the presidential election in 1988, and approaching the level reached by Bill Clinton in November 2000. Obama far outpaces George W. Bush’s approval rating in November 2008, when just 24% approved of the outgoing president.

Improvements in Obama’s approval rating seem to stem largely from Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. Among that group of leaned Republicans, 22% now approve of Obama’s job performance, up from 16% in late October. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, it has held steady at 91%.

The president’s favorability rating is also at its highest point since fall of 2009, with 59% saying they have a positive impression of Obama and 38% seeing him unfavorably. But the warm ratings for Obama do not extend to his party. Favorability ratings for the Democratic Party dropped 6 points since October, and the 54% who hold an unfavorable opinion of it is the highest in CNN/ORC or CNN/USA Today/Gallup polling dating back to 1992.

Among Democrats, favorability ratings for the party have dipped to 81%, down 10 points since late October. That’s the lowest mark Democrats have given their own party in CNN polling in more than a decade. Just 28% of independents have a favorable take on the Democratic Party, an 11-point drop since October.