Osama's death boosts Obama's approval rating by 11%

The approval rating of US President Barack Obama has jumped by a whopping 11% since the killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, according to a latest opinion poll.

A new CBS News/New York Times poll shows that 57% of Americans generally approve of Obama in the wake of the raid deep inside Pakistan that killed Osama on Monday.

Two weeks ago his overall approval rating was at 46%.

A whopping 85% of those polled gave Obama high marks for his handling of the operation to find bin Laden, the poll said.
In a CBS News Poll conducted in December 2003, just after the US military captured Saddam Hussein in Iraq, the then President George W Bush received a 60% approval rating -- a jump of about six percentage points.

But it was short-lived, and his poll numbers never reached that height again, CBS News said.

The poll also revealed that approval ratings for Obama's handling of the threat of terrorism, the war in Afghanistan, and foreign policy in general have increased in the wake of bin Laden's death.

A significant 72% of Americans (including 53% of Republicans) approve of Obama's handling of terrorism, his highest rating on the issue since talking office.

In last month's poll, only 39% approved of Obama's handling of foreign policy -- his lowest rating to date. Now, 52% say they approve, CBS said.

"This shows that the president was not only ready to act, but had his eye on the ball," said CBS News political analyst John Dickerson, and that could deprive Republican opponents of a key weapon used to attack Obama in the past -- a perceived lack of gravitas in dealing with defense issues.

The Gallup polls said that Obama's approval rating has jumped by eight%.

However, the polls reflect that the approval rating on Obama's economic policy has gone down.