So now that the teabaggers have run out of gas, and Americans have awoken to the serious prospect of health care and health insurance reform, President Obama has seen a small but noticable overall jump in his approval and an extremely large jump in his approval from independents. The AP reports that this is the first time the President's approval has gone up since he took office.
More specifics from the poll on the flip.
In my opinion, the movement from independents is the biggest takeaway from this poll:
Obama's job approval has also gone up among independents. Fifty-three percent said they approved of the president's job performance, a nine point increase since September. Even more strikingly, the percentage of independents who said they disapproved plunged 16 points, from 53 percent last month to 37 percent now.
The increase in his approval is based primarily on jumps in approval on his handling of healthcare and the economy:
Fifty percent of those surveyed said they approved of the president's handling of the economy, up from 44 percent in September. And 48 percent said they approved of his handling of health care, up six points and about equal to the 47 percent who said they disapproved.
The only real drop in approval was with his handling of Afghanistan, not surprising since so many of us disagree with General McKristal's opinion that troop levels need to be increased dramatically.
It's actually somewhat fascinating to see the movement from "healthcare reform is teetering on the edge of a cliff" to "healthcare reform is going to pass, but how strong will the public option be".
Good stuff. I continue to trust our President on all of the big issues (although he is much more long term and bigger picture than I am on nearly all of the Dubya/Cheney items like torture/4th Amendment/investigations/etc.)