President Obama's surging popularity: What it means

Fresh off his second inauguration, President Obama is starting his new term with his favorability rating at a three-year high. Sixty percent of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of Obama, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday. That's a considerable improvement over his poll numbers during last year's heated campaign, when Obama typically scored in the low- to mid-50 percent range. Of course, Obama is still way short of the peak of his personal popularity, when 79 percent gave him high marks at the start of his first term four years ago.

Still, today's numbers are even better than they look for Obama at first glance, according to Brett LoGiurato at Business Insider. The percentage of people offering "strongly" favorable ratings (39 percent) is up, too, and exceeds the percentage saying they're strongly unfavorable for the first time in two years.

Some conservatives aren't so sure. "While the mainstream press routinely reports that President Obama is riding high and that Republicans are reeling," says Jeffrey H. Anderson at The Weekly Standard, Obama's job approval ratings — which are different than personal popularity numbers — tell a different story. According to Gallup, Obama's job approval rating in January was, on average, 52 percent, which is lower than every president but one, dating back to 1945.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

It does appear that Obama is firing up his base, though. Democrats and independents are giving Obama higher marks, which helps explain why his progressive inaugural address served as "a pep rally, with raving reviews from supporters," according to Scott Clement and Aaron Blake at The Washington Post. Still, despite Obama's surging popularity among his fans, 80 percent of Republicans have an unfavorable view of him, similar to the 78 percent he scored last January. That could very well mean that Obama will run into the same obstacles he has for the last three years.