This article is from the archive of our partner .

Rick Santorum got a lot of applause railing against the Obama administration over whether religious institutions should have to offer health insurance that covers birth control. But applause aside, even Republicans are on the president's side. Here's our guide to today's polls and which ones matter.

Findings: 60 percent of Americans support the federal government requiring private health insurance plans cover the full costs of birth control. That includes 50 percent of Republicans, The Washington Post's Greg Sargent points out.

Pollster: New York Times/ CBS News

Methodology: Phone interviews of 1,197 Americans, 997 of them registered voters, from February 8 to February 13. Cell phone users were included.

Why it matters: The conventional wisdom is quickly flipping from the idea that Obama bungled his handling of the issue with Catholic officials to the idea that this is a wedge issue that helps Democrats.

Caveat: This is definitely not going to be the No. 1 issue in the general election. Or even, like, No. 30.

Findings: Obama's approval rating is 50 percent.

Pollster: New York Times/ CBS News

Methodology: Phone interviews of 1,197 Americans from February 8 to February 13.

Why it matters: This is the highest approval rating Obama's had in this poll since May 2010, if you don't count a short-lived bump from Osama bin Laden's death. It's one of several recent polls showing Obama's approval rating doing much better, and that's considered a good way to measure his reelection chances.

Caveat: Even Obama's reelection team doesn't think the economic news will be uniformly good in the next few months, Politico's Mike Allen reports, which means Obama's poll numbers probably won't be either. Allen writes, "don't get swept up in the hype: The administration isn't!"