Obama's approval rating hits a new high for his second term

This could be good news for Hillary

(Bill Pugliano/Getty)

President Barack Obama’s approval rating is now at 55 per cent, marking the highest grade of his second term, according to the latest CNN/ORC poll released on Thursday morning.

He’s reached the high twice before, following his first inauguration in January 2011 and in January 2013. And for the past seven months, Mr Obama’s rating has remained above 50 per cent. The president’s rating is up 10 points from last year but has barely improved among Republicans—he’s up 2 per cent.

This is likely great news for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, as The Washington Post’s Philip Bump writes, there’s a strong correlation between how folks feel about Mr Obama and Ms Clinton.

“Ninety percent of Clinton supporters approve of Obama's job performance, 64 percent of them do so strongly,” Mr Bump wrote in September. “About the same percentage of Trump backers disapprove of Obama's job performance, more of them feeling that way strongly.”

The recent CNN/ORC survey interviewed 1,501 people from September 28 to October 2, with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.5 points.