CNN poll: Obama ends May with significant boost in job approval

President Obama's approval ratings up, boosted by
independents and GOPers (Photo: whitehouse.gov)
 

Opinion Research Corporation for CNN (PDF) (5/24-26, adult Americans):

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president?

Approve: 54%
Disapprove: 45%

Now compare this to his numbers in early April, according to the same polling firm:

Approve: 48%
Disapprove: 50%

That's a net swing of 11 points in the positive direction in a little less than two months. Notably, much of that shift has come from independents and Republicans. Here's the net swing by party:

Democrats: -4
Independents: +23
Republicans: +24

There's not enough data in the poll to explain exactly why such a striking shift has taken place, but it seems like this has to reflect more than just the capture of bin Laden. Maybe the implosion of the Donald Trump bubble actually was a wakeup call to moderate Republicans and moderate Republican-leaning independents that their disdain for President Obama was completely irrational. Perhaps also Obama's opposition to the Republican overreach on Medicare has helped boost his standing. Whatever it is, the shift among Democrats looks like statistical noise, but something's happening with a subset of independents and Republicans that is causing them to warm to Obama.