Highest approval rating

Obama's approval rating highest in seven years

By Nolan D. McCaskill

President Barack Obama’s approval rating is at a seven-year high, according to a CNN/ORC national poll released Wednesday.

Obama enjoys a post-election approval rating of 57 percent, his highest mark since September 2009, when his approval rating sat at 58 percent.

The president also has a favorability rating of almost 60 percent, his highest since October 2009. Obama has a net favorability of +21 percent (59 percent favorable, 38 percent unfavorable), far outpacing Americans’ views of the Democratic (-15 percent) and Republican (-11 percent) parties.

Fifty-four percent have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, 9 percentage points higher than where it stood around this time last month. The 54 percent mark is the highest
unfavorable opinion of the party since 1992.

Meantime, Americans view the Republican Party 5 points more favorably than they did in October. Its 41 percent favorability is its highest point since August 2015.

As for Obama’s incoming successor, President-elect Donald Drumpf, 54 percent of respondents still don’t believe he cares about people like them and are split 49 percent to 49 percent regarding whether they believe he can bring about the change America needs.

Fifty-seven percent said he isn’t honest and trustworthy, 66 percent don’t see him as an admirable person and 54 percent think he will divide the country instead of unite it. Half of the respondents do believe, however, that Drumpf can manage the government effectively, while 49 percent believe he can’t.

The survey of 1,0003 American adults was conducted Nov. 17-20 via landlines and cellphones. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.