Gallup

Gallup is out with their latest poll of Obama approval ratings. Nate Silver at 538 is surprised at Obama's stronger than expected showing in Mississippi and Georgia.

If Mr. Silver had read this blog on January 14, he would've seen that Mississippi had the most dramatic improvement at the voting booth, compared to the average vote totals for the Democrats in each election. I flagged Georgia as a possible swing state. The high approval ratings in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Connecticut were seen at the polls. There isn't 100% correlation with the votes. The Democrats improvement in Arizona and Arkansas is not seen in the approval ratings, although his low 2008 Arizona total due to John McCain might have made the Democrats improvement look bigger than it. Likewise his popularity in Illinois doesn't translate to all Democrats.