Obama approval rating continues to rise

U.S. President Barack Obama’s approval rating has reached its highest level in three years. According to Gallup, Obama’s approval rating is now on par with Ronald Reagan’s approval rating at the same point in their respective presidencies.

A new Bloomberg poll puts his job approval rating at an even 50 percent, a 6-point jump from the survey they conducted in November. His favorability rating spiked 9 points, all the way up to 57 percent. On specific issue areas that have been troublesome for the president in the past, like the economy and health care, his approval rating is inching up towards 50 percent. He is getting positive marks for nominating Merrick Garland to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Antonin Scalia, and nearly two-thirds of the country supports his push to have the Republican-controlled Senate hold hearings on the nomination.

Those numbers are in line with what other polls are showing. A look at the Huffington Post’s poll aggregator shows that Obama’s average approval rating is just a hair under 50 percent and rising. After spending about two and half years with his approval ratings underwater, his numbers began to tick upward starting in December 2015, and they have been rising ever since. That is pretty decent news for a two-term president in his final year of office, when voters tend to register fatigue with the administration and the party in power.

Read more: Alternet