The nasty presidential primary race that is driving up the disapproval rates of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton is having the opposite effect on President Obama, whose approval numbers have reached the highest level since his re-election nearly four years ago.

At least three new polls, led by Gallup, put Obama over 50 percent approval, with the latest Democracy Corps survey pegging his approval rating at 54 percent, equal to what he was at on Election Day 2012.