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Voters may have decided that the White House needed a new party in it, but polls released in the past week show that President Barack Obama‘s approval ratings are at the highest they’ve been since at least 2012. One poll even shows his best numbers since 2009.
Here’s a look at the results of recent polls of Obama’s job approval.
CNN/ORC Poll – 57 Percent Job Approval Rating
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A CNN/ORC Poll released on November 23 shows Obama with a 59 percent favorable rating, with 38 percent having an unfavorable opinion of Obama. The poll was conducted between November 17 and 20, with 1,003 adults responding. The margin of error was +/- 3 points.
Overall opinion of Barack Obama:
Favorable 59%
Unfavorable 38%
Never heard of 1%
Unsure 2%
(CNN/ORC 11/17-20)
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The same poll showed Obama with a 57 percent job approval rating, while 41 percent disapproved of his performance as president. That’s the best result for Obama in the poll since September 11-13, when 58 percent of respondents approved of his job performance. Obama’s job approval rating never fell below 41 percent in this poll.
CNN’s poll also showed some fascinating differences in the way people view Donald Trump compared to Obama. While just 41 percent believe that Trump is honest and trustworthy, 62 percent think Obama is honest and trustworthy. While 63 percent of respondents think Obama cares about “people like you,” only 46 percent think that applies to Trump.
Gallup Poll – 57 Percent Job Approval Rating
#Obama Job Approval: Approve 55% (-1); Disapprove 42% (-). Get the full trend
The latest Gallup weekly poll of Obama’s job approval shows 57 percent of the 3,500 respondents on November 13 approving of his performance. That’s a major shift from when he hit a low of 40 percent in November 2009.
The November 13 poll showed Obama at a four-year high. The last time he was at 57 percent was in December 2012.
This means that the phenomenon of a post-election bounce stays alive for Obama. As Gallup notes, every president since Ronald Reagan has seen a poll bounce after an election. Even George W. Bush saw his abysmal approval rating go from 25 percent in October 31-November 2, 2008 climb to 28 percent in November 7-9, 2008. Even though his father lost the 1992 election, President George H.W. Bush’s approval rating jumped nine points to 43 percent on November 20-22, 1992.
Compared to Bill Clinton’s last Gallup polls while in office, Obama isn’t doing as well. Clinton managed to stay above 60 percent in his last months and averaged a 60.6 percent approval rating in his second term. Although Reagan finished his second term with an approval rating over 60 percent as well, his second term average was 55.3 percent.
Quinnipiac University Poll – 50 Percent Job Approval Rating
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On November 28, Quinnipiac University published the results of its latest poll, conducted between November 17 and 20. This one has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points. It included responses from 1,071 voters nationwide.
The poll found that 50 percent of voters approve of Obama’s job, the nighest number for the poll since December 2012, when he had a 53 percent approval rating. The poll found that 43 percent disapprove of his job performance.
Most of those polled agreed that Obama was at least a “good” or “great” president. Twenty-two percent of those polled thought he has been a great president, while 33 percent said he has been a good president. However, 22 percent think he was a bad president and 23 percent think he was “not so good.”
“President Barack Obama’s final score card is a passing grade overall, but barely,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement. “Are the GOP’s favorability scores an endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump’s change agent status? It could well be that despite Obama’s largely positive exit numbers Americans say it’s time to turn the page.”
While the poll showed that most Americans are at least pleased with Obama’s performance, most are not happy with the state of the country. Just 27 percent are “vary satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with the state of the Union. Sixty percent of those polled also thought that the economy is in “poor” or “not so good” shape.
