Tom Jensen writes that Public Policy Polling's most recent national monthly survey shows President Obama with his highest approval rating since October.
50% approved of his performance compared to 46% who disapproved. A significant boost came from independents who were divided at 46% approve, 47% disapprove, an improvement over last month's 41% approve, 45% disapprove numbers.
The poll also showed 55% support continued offshore drilling (30% opposed), though more Democrats opposed drilling (48%) than supported it (34%). 43% said the spill makes them less likely to support drilling, compared with 21% who said it makes them more likely and 36% who said it makes no difference.
The poll also showed that the "BP truther" conspiracy theory that environmentalists caused the disaster has not been widely accepted. Just 9% believed that environmentalists intentionally caused the spill. Interestingly, more than three times as many Republicans (13%) as Democrats (4%) held this view. 60% of Republicans said they did not believe the conspiracy theory compared to 77% of Democrats.
The poll was conducted between May 7th and 9th and has a margin of error of 3.7%.