AP's
latest poll offers yet another piece of evidence that American voters have grown more comfortable with President Obama's leadership since the success of the bin Laden operation: three-fifths of Americans now approve of the President's job performance and a 53% say he deserves to be re-elected.
Obama's job approval rating was 60% approve, 39% disapprove, a 21-point net approval ratings. That's up from an eight-point net approval rating in AP's previous poll. On the reelection question, the split was 53% saying he deserves reelection with 43% saying he doesn't, up from a three-point net advantage in the previous poll.
Arguably, the personal ratings aren't the most important finding of the poll, however. 45% of Americans now say the country is headed in the right direction. That's seven points lower than the 52% who say the country is headed in the wrong direction, but nonetheless a remarkable turnaround from AP's previous poll in which the gap stood at 27 points, 35-62. These are the best numbers on the right-track/wrong-track question in AP polling in two years.