... which means bad news for conservatives.  From today's Rasmussen Reports Daily Presidential Tracking Poll:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-seven percent (37%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14 (see trends).

That's the president's best Approval Index rating since August.

...

Overall, 49% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president's job performance.

Keep in mind that Rasmussen computes his presidential approval ratings as a three-day moving average, meaning, mathematically, that Obama's approval rating must have been over 50% in at least one, and possibly more than one, of the last three days.

And then, there's this:

President Obama is now essentially tied with a generic Republican candidate in a hypothetical Election 2012 matchup for the week ending Sunday, Dec. 18.  This is the closest margin between the two candidates in just over a month of weekly tracking.

Two weeks ago, Obama trailed a generic Republican 49%-48%.

I leave it to the commenters to explain the sudden improvement in Obama's prospects.  My point is simply that anyone who thinks Obama is toast needs to do a serious rethink.

Gene Schwimmer is the author of The Christian State.