President Obama enters the final month of his presidency with a higher job approval rating than at any point in the last four years, according to a Quinnipiac University released Monday.
About half of U.S. voters currently approve of the job Obama is doing, the highest score the outgoing Democratic president has received since a poll taken after his re-election victory in December 2012. A combined 55 percent of voters described Obama as a “great” or “good” president, while 22 percent said he has been a poor leader.
Despite receiving high marks for his overall job performance, only 21 percent of Americans believe the current administration’s policy agenda has helped their personal financial status. A third of voters said Obama’s economic policies have hurt them, while 44 percent said they have not been impacted personally.
Obama has continued to push his legacy healthcare law and legislative agenda in the waning days of his presidency, despite facing significant pushback from lawmakers across the aisle following the administration’s announcement in October that insurance rates on the federal exchange are likely to increase an average of 25 percent in 2017.
Republicans have also seen an uptick in their job approval rating and have surpassed Democrats for the first time in two years in their overall favorability rating. The GOP has a net favorable-unfavorable rating of 38-50 percent compared to the Democrats’ rating of 35-46 percent.
“President Obama’s final scorecard is a passing grade overall, but barely,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll, said in a statement. “Are the GOP’s favorability scores an endorsement of President-elect Trump’s change agent status? It could well be that despite Obama’s largely positive exit numbers, Americans say it’s time to turn the page.”
The survey of 1,071 voters across the U.S. was conducted from Nov. 17-20. Results contain a margin of error plus or minus 3 percentage points.
