Poll: 79 percent approve of Michelle Obama

[mucifer]

FROM USA TODAY

President Barack Obama's approval rating is strong, but his wife has him beat by a wide margin.

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll survey, taken Monday and Tuesday, 79 percent say they approve of the way Michelle Obama is handling the job of first lady. Just 8 percent disapprove.
While Barack Obama's rating shows a sharp partisan divide -- Democrats overwhelmingly approve but most Republicans don't -- Michelle Obama's appeal crosses party lines. Almost every Democrat expresses approval, 94 percent-1 percent. Even among Republicans, her approval rating is a muscular 64 percent-17 percent.

Obama's ratings aren't a record high for a president's wife, but they're close. The highest approval rating since FDR's administration was for Laura Bush in January 2005, as her husband was being sworn in for his second term. Then, 85 percent said she was doing a good job. And in February 1999, Hillary Rodham Clinton -- now secretary of state, then her way to being elected as a New York senator -- had an approval rating of 80 percent.

Most first ladies can only dream of reaching that sort of territory. Keep in mind that this question has only rarely been asked about first ladies. When it has, here are the top scores of Michelle Obama's predecessors: Nancy Reagan, 58 percent in April 1987; Rosalynn Carter, 59 percent in August 1979; Pat Nixon, 54 percent in June 1969; and Eleanor Roosevelt, 68 percent in February 1940.

The new poll of 1,051 adults, taken by land line and cell phone, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

A USA Today/Gallup Poll says 79 percent of Americans approve of the way Michelle Obama is handling her job. This tops her husband's approval rating of 64 percent.
(AP)



That tops her husband's approval rating, which was 64 percent approve-28 percent disapprove in the Gallup Poll posted Wednesday.

Asked about the first lady's stronger showing, White House adviser David Axelrod joked in an interview, "Fortunately, she's agreed not to run."
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1541541,w-michelle-obama-barack-approval-rating-042309.article