Starting the Year Off Right

Well wouldn't you know it? Barack Obama has posted his best approval rating in more than six months.

Barack Obama's job approval rating reached the symbolic 50% mark in the latest three-day average from Gallup Daily tracking. Obama's approval rating has been in the mid-40% range for much of the latter half of 2010. He last hit 50% approval in a three-day average near the end of May/beginning of June.

Gallup not only provides outright numbers on President Obama, but also a comparison between the ratings he now receives and those received by his predecessors at a similar point in their tenures. Interestingly enough, Barack Obama's current approval rating is fully 13 percentage points better today than Ronald Reagan's was at this point in 1983 -- just 22 months out from his 58.8 percentage point reelection bid. Bill Clinton's approval rating wasn't much higher heading into his successful reelection bid, with 40 percent of the country then backing him.

I've been watching one of the cable news shows on and off for nearly an hour this morning. Surprisingly, these numbers haven't been leading the coverage...