WASHINGTON – After a historic week of victories on health care and same-sex marriage, along with a searing tragedy, President Barack Obama’s approval rating has climbed to 50 percent.
The result came in a CNN/ORC tracking poll released Tuesday. Overall, 50 percent of respondents expressed approval of the president, compared with 47 percent who disapproved — Obama’s best marks in the poll since May 2013.
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Approval of the president among African-Americans was especially pronounced. Ninety-one percent of blacks expressed approval of Obama in the poll, which was recorded after the president’s response to the tragic killing of nine African-Americans at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17. On Friday, Obama delivered a eulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of the slain, that has been heralded as one of his finest speeches.
Fully 55 percent of Americans of all races expressed approval of the president’s handling of “race relations.
The president’s policies on guns remain unpopular, though. Only 42 percent of Americans approve of his handling of the issue, while 53 percent disapproved.
The overall high marks also follow a number of historic victories for the administration at the Supreme Court, including a ruling upholding a key portion of the Affordable Care Act and a ruling making same-sex marriage a constitutional right nationwide.
But the president’s popularity extended beyond the specific issues that made headlines in the last week. Fifty-two percent of respondents approved of the president’s handling of the economy, the highest result since 2009.
The poll was taken from June 26 to 28 and included telephone interviews with 1,017 adult Americans. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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