Obama Approval Rating is 51 Percent Ahead of Jan. 21 Inauguration

The latest polling figures show President Barack Obama will start his second term with strong approval numbers.

The president received a 51 percent approval rating, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll released on Friday.

Forty-one percent disapproved of Obama's performance.

The poll numbers were based on Americans surveyed Jan. 11-15 on whether they approved of how Obama is handling his job.

The nationwide poll was conducted with 1,110 participating adults, using landlines and cellphones. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Obama's numbers were compared against past presidents who were polled at the start of their second terms of office.

In January 2005, George W. Bush had an approval rating of 49 percent; Bill Clinton entered his second term with a 60 percent approval rating and Ronald Reagan entered his second term with an approval rating of 62 percent.

The latest figures from Gallup show similar but smaller figures for Obama with his approval marked at 49 percent on Friday as per polling figures between Jan. 15 - Jan. 17.

It appears that the president's numbers have remained fairly steady over the past month.

Gallup's previous statement about Obama's December polling numbers was reported by The Economic Times: "The 56 percent (approval rating) average is for Monday through Wednesday, December 17-19. Obama's job approval had reached 54 percent during the week prior to the Newtown shootings, but had dropped to 51 percent from December 11-13, the three days just prior to December 14."

President Obama will start his second term with his inauguration on Jan 21 at the Capital.

There will be three days of scheduled events surrounding the inauguration that include a National Day of Service on Jan 19 and the commander-in-chief's inaugural ball on Monday night.