President Obama's approval rating has climbed to its highest point since May of 2013. | AP Photo Obama approval rating hits three-year high

President Barack Obama's approval rating is the highest it has been since May 2013, according to the results of the latest weekly Gallup tracking poll.

Overall, 50 percent of those surveyed said they approve of the job the president is doing so far in his final 365 days in office, up from the 46 percent rating he earned in his penultimate year. The 50 percent is also higher than the 47 percent approval average since 2009.


Obama's approval is naturally split along partisan lines, with 87 percent of Democrats supporting his performance, an increase of 6 points from the beginning of 2016. Among Republicans, just 11 percent gave favorable marks to Obama, slightly down from the GOP average to date.

While Obama's approval is higher than that of President George W. Bush at a comparable time in office, it is lower than that of his most immediate Democratic predecessor. In March 2000, 63 percent of Americans surveyed by Gallup said they approved of Bill Clinton's job performance. Bush, meanwhile, carried a 32 percent approval rating in March 2008.

Obama's approval rating with 10 months to go in office is roughly the same as Ronald Reagan's in March 1988 (51 percent). The partisan divide was less pronounced in 1988, however, with 28 percent of Democrats supporting Reagan's performance, compared with 11 percent of Republicans who indicated the same for Obama this month.

The results from the Gallup poll came from telephone interviews conducted between Feb. 29 and March 6, surveying 3,563 adults nationwide. The overall margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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