The Associated Press-GfK Poll found 60 percent of Americans approve of the way Obama is handling his job. That's up from 53 percent since a poll taken in late March - before Bin Laden was killed.
Of those surveyed, 39 percent disapprove of the way the president is handling his job.
The president's standing improved not just on foreign policy but also on the economy, and independent Americans - a key voting bloc in the November 2012 presidential election - caused the overall uptick in support by sliding back to Obama after fleeing for much of the past two years.
More poll results
- Seventy-three percent say they are confident that Obama can effectively handle terrorist threats.
- Despite a sluggish recovery from the Great Recession, 52 percent of Americans now approve of Obama's stewardship of the economy, giving him his best rating on that issue since the early days of his presidency.
- More Americans - 45 percent - say the country is headed in the right direction.
- Fifty-three percent now say he deserves to be re-elected; 43 percent say he should be fired, making it the first time in an AP-GfK poll that more people say he should get a second term than not.
- Sixty-three percent say Obama cares about people like them; 63 percent also say that he understands the problems of ordinary Americans.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
