With tears running down his cheeks, Obama talks about the victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook at the White House on January 5. | Getty Poll: Obama approval bumps up to 54 percent after DNC

Barack Obama's approval rating rose to 54 percent after last week's Democratic National Convention, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Thursday, marking the president's highest public approval in the same survey in three and a half years.

Since February, the public's approval of Obama on the job has hovered around 50 percent in the same survey, including after the Republican National Convention when half of those surveyed expressed support for the president and 47 percent disapproved. In the latest survey, conducted by landlines and cellphones from last Friday through Sunday, 45 percent said they did not approve of his performance. Approval for Obama is high among women (59 percent to 40 percent), non-whites (77 percent to 22 percent), college graduates (62 percent to 37 percent), people younger than 45 years old (68 percent to 31 percent) and Democrats (89 percent to 10 percent). At the same time, men are split on Obama (48 percent to 51 percent), while whites are largely in disapproval (43 percent to 56 percent), as are those older than 45 (42 percent to 57 percent).


From a historical perspective, Bill Clinton drew a similarly high 57 percent approval rating at a similar point in 2000, while Ronald Reagan's ratings were roughly the same as Obama's at the same time in 1988. Even so, it is unclear what effect that might have on Hillary Clinton in November. While Vice President George H.W. Bush knocked off Michael Dukakis in 1988 after a slow start in the polls, Clinton's Vice President Al Gore came up short 12 years later.

Nearly two in three registered voters surveyed—64 percent—said they think Clinton will continue with Obama's policies, while 33 percent said they saw her taking a different route.

The poll surveyed 1,003 adults, carrying an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, including 894 registered voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.