2.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Advertisements

As President Barack Obama prepares to help Hillary Clinton close out the campaign and slam the door shut on a Donald Trump presidency, his approval rating is hitting new highs.

According to the latest CNN poll, Obama’s approval rating hit 55 percent – the highest of his second year and the best rating he’s received since his first year as president. Among independents, a key voting bloc, Obama’s approval rating is even higher at 56 percent.

The report via CNN:

The new rating outpaces his previous second-term high — reached just after a Democratic convention that extolled the successes of his presidency — by one point, and hits a level he’s reached just twice since the end of his first year in office: In January 2013 just before his second inauguration and in January 2011.

The new poll continues a streak in which Obama’s approval rating has been at 50% or higher in CNN/ORC polls since February, a seven month run that is his longest since 2009. And taken together, Obama’s approval ratings in 2016 average 51% so far in CNN/ORC polls, his best mark since that first year in office.

Advertisements

While Republicans and Donald Trump are hoping to make this a “change” election, it’s clear that American voters think their current two-term president has gone a good job – stopping a Great Depression, laying the groundwork for sustained job growth, providing health insurance for millions of Americans, bringing thousands of troops home, blocking Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon, killing Osama bin Laden, and expanding rights for the LGBT community, among other things.

Obama’s full-time entrance into the campaign arena comes at a perfect time. Not only has the Trump campaign been stumbling badly since his poor performance at the first presidential debate, but Clinton’s poll numbers nationally and in key swing states are rising.

According to FiveThirtyEight’s latest forecast, Clinton has a 75 percent chance of beating Trump on Election Day.

With Trump falling and Clinton rising, Obama will seek to effectively block the unfit Republican nominee from the presidency for good by touting his record as president and promoting the current Democratic nominee as the candidate who will be able to preserve it and expand on it.

As Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said, “Hillary Clinton is ahead as we go into the ninth inning, and it’s time to bring in the big guy, Barack Obama.”

While former Republican presidents and nominees have refused to throw their support behind their own nominee, the Democratic nominee will have a popular outgoing president by her side to close out the campaign and bring home a victory.