Terrific: Obama approval hits second-term high of 55 percent

The deficit is soaring. Economic growth is still sluggish. Syria is a disaster. ObamaCare is imploding. The Supreme Court just informed the president that, much to his dismay, he does have to enforce the nation's immigration laws. So how about that job the Barack Obama's doing? What say you, America? Oh . . . OK:

President Barack Obama's approval rating stands at 55% in a new CNN/ORC poll, the highest mark of his second term, and matching his best at any time since his first year in office

The new rating outpaces his previous second-term high -- reached just after a Democratic convention that extolled the successes of his presidency -- by one point, and hits a level he's reached just twice since the end of his first year in office: In January 2013 just before his second inauguration and in January 2011. The new poll continues a streak in which Obama's approval rating has been at 50% or higher in CNN/ORC polls since February, a seven month run that is his longest since 2009. And taken together, Obama's approval ratings in 2016 average 51% so far in CNN/ORC polls, his best mark since that first year in office.

Now you know this is about one thing and one thing only, or maybe I should say two things: Trump and Hillary. With almost no one happy about the choices we have in this election, Obama looks pretty darn good by comparison. Not to you and me, of course, but to the independent voter who didn't like the direction of the country a year ago, but now looks with horror at the alternatives and thinks another four years of this guy might not be the worst thing. Of course, that type of analysis doesn't really consider the problems facing the country or the steps necessary to solve them. If you're concerned about the things I mentioned in the opening paragraph, you're probably not an independent. The independent voter is the voter-for-the-person-not-the-party type who isn't really ideological in looking at the issues. He or she is looking at things like "temperament" and whether someone acts presidential.

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I guess we all have our own definitions of that, but America 2016 seems to think Obama plays the role better than Trump or Hillary. Then again, since coverage of this election has been about endless trivia and not the substantive issues - as is increasingly the case with every election - most voters probably don't even know the things I mentioned in the opening paragraph are true. If they did, and they realized these problems have resulted directly from Obama's policy decisions, his approval rating would be in the teens. But people who mainly get their news from the Today Show, Comedy Central and Yahoo headlines don't know any of this. They just know that Obama suddenly doesn't seem so bad. He's actually as bad as ever, and arguably worse since he really has nothing to lose now in his pursuit of the left's global agenda. But you have to be paying attention, and you have to know what to watch for, in order to know that. Most people are not and do not. That's how Democrats win.