Obama's approval up

By Richard Baehr

President Obama has gone from 33-32 strongly approve - strongly disapprove, to 38-30 in the latest Rasmussen numbers. . He's been trending higher for a week or more. Overall approval - disapproval is up from 54-45 to 57-43. As the stock market climbs and economic news seems to be a bit better, the uptick is not surprising.

Generic Democrat - Republican choice remains a virtual tie. And GOP is polling well (it's still early of course) in some 2010 Senate matchups. This suggests Obama's approval rating is to some extent independent of other Democrats.

It also suggests that GOP criticism of Obama may not have much traction. Aiming fire at Waxman or Pelosi on climate change, for instance, or arguing issues themselves, is a much better strategy.