Obama approval hits 50 percent for first time in more than two years: poll

After big wins for President Obama in the courts last week, the president’s approval rating has hit 50 percent for the first time in more than two years, said a CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday.

Forty-seven percent of Americans said they disapprove of how Mr. Obama is handling his job. The marks were the best he’s seen since a 53 percent/45 percent approve/disapprove split in May 2013, after which his approval rating had hovered between 42 percent and 48 percent in CNN’s polling.

Ninety-one percent of blacks said they approve of how he’s handling his job, up slightly from 89 percent in February. And 39 percent of whites said they approve, up from 34 percent in February.

Last week saw the U.S. Supreme Court uphold key provisions in Mr. Obama’s health care law and said same-sex couples had the right to marry nationwide. In May 2012, Mr. Obama said publicly for the first time that he supported same-sex marriage.

Mr. Obama also delivered the eulogy on Friday for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of nine killed in the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, last week, in an address in which he reiterated a call for gun control, condemned the Confederate battle flag and led the crowd in a version of “Amazing Grace.”

People were still divided on broader questions about his presidency, the poll said. Forty-seven percent said they think the president has taken advantage of the opportunity to address the important problems facing the country over the last 6½ years, while 45 percent said he’s wasted the opportunity to address important problems.

Fifty percent said they thought he would take advantage of the opportunity in his last year and a half, compared to 46 percent who said they thought he would waste the opportunity. This week, he is rolling out a new proposal for overtime pay that would cover salaried workers making up to about $50,400 and affect up to about 5 million people.

The poll of 1,017 adults was taken Friday through Sunday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.