Poll: 78% Approve Obama's Arizona Speech

Seventy-eight percent of Americans, including 71 percent of Republicans, approved of the way President Barack Obama responded to the shootings in Tucson that wounded 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and killed six. Disapproval of the tea party has reached a new high of 52 percent, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll showed.

Some 82 percent believe that the current political discourse is negative and 49 percent think it encourages violence. Nonetheless, 54 percent did not believe it contributed to the Arizona shootings while 40 percent believe it did, the Post reported.

The telephone poll of 1,053 people, taken after Obama’s Arizona speech, showed the president’s approval rating rebounding to 54 percent, its highest since last April. Sarah Palin’s response to the shootings garnered a 30 percent overall approval rating and even among Republicans fewer than half approved of her handling of the incident, the poll showed.

Asked to choose whose direction they prefer, 44 percent chose Obama’s while 35 percent went with the congressional Republicans.