Sorry, I don’t make the news, I just report it. Here’s the RCP average of Obama’s approval rating since Memorial Day of 2014:

What’s worse (for Republicans) is that Obama is starting to creep over 51% approval in several of the most recent polls, which means that he will be able to hit the trail and fundraise aggressively for Democrats in the fall with absolutely no fear of reprisal.

What’s behind this? All the economic fundamentals have remained pretty constant throughout the year, and on the foreign policy front things have arguably gotten worse, not better. There’s been no national news event in which Obama was able to show off perceived competence like Hurricane Sandy and Congress remains pretty deadlocked against anything he wants to do.

The answer, of course, is that since February of 2016 (when Obama’s image began to noticeably improve) the American public has been forced to come to terms with the likelihood that the next President will be either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. And whatever you think of Obama, he is clearly better than either of those options.

In fact, next to the widely reviled Trump and the almost equally reviled Clinton, with their perpetual flip flopping, lying, and unsavory personal pasts, Obama looks positively statesmanlike by comparison – like he might well be the last even vaguely presidential President we might ever have. That kind of thing is bound to help out your image for the history books.