Field Poll: Obama's approval rating climbs to 62 percent in California dsiders@sacbee.com Published Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013

President Barack Obama's job approval rating among California voters has climbed above 60 percent for the first time since 2009, the year he first took office, according to a new Field Poll.

Sixty-two percent of registered voters approve of the job Obama is doing, up from 58 percent in September, according to the poll released today.

Even in this heavily Democratic state, Obama's public approval rating had fallen below 50 percent in 2011, before gradually improving last year.

The most recent poll follows Obama's re-election and two major speeches, his second inaugural and State of the Union.

Nearly nine in 10 Democrats and two-thirds of independent voters approve of the job Obama is doing, while just 20 percent of Republicans rate Obama favorably, according to the poll.

"Certainly a good report for Obama," poll director Mark DiCamillo said. "What you're seeing is a return to the fold of his own party base and Democratic sympathizers within the nonpartisan base."

The electorate remains overwhelmingly negative about the job Congress is doing, though its public approval rating improved slightly over previous months. Twenty-two percent of California voters approve of the job Congress is doing, up from 17 percent last summer, according to the poll.

Forty-eight percent of California voters think the United States is generally headed in the right direction, compared with 44 percent who say it is seriously off track, according to the poll.

Democrats are far more optimistic than Republicans about the country's general direction. Nearly 70 percent of Democrats say the country is heading in the right direction, while 77 percent of Republicans say it is on the wrong track, according to the poll.