Like the Washington Post last week when writing about its own polling data, USA Today this week forgot to inform readers that Obama's job approval has gone up, albeit slightly; up four points since March to a solid 50 percent. (At this stage of his first term, Ronald Reagan had a 45 percent approval rating.)

Weird, right? It's almost like journalists are embarrassed when their own polling results don't match the preferred Beltway narrative about how Obama's presidency is being swamped by the Gulf oil disaster. I mean, everyone's writing that, right? Even USA Today couched its polling write-up in terms of the oil spill and what bad news it is for Obama. (Another, separate USA Today polling piece about how Dems are doomed in November also ignored Obama's approval rating move.)

But if that's the case, why, in the latest polls by the WashPost and USA Today, has Obama's approval rating crept up? Why is Obama's approval rating higher in those polls than it was before the BP disaster?

UPDATED: BTW, according to Gallup's daily track poll of Obama, his approval rating is up five points in the last week. Is anybody in the Beltway press going to write about this, or is it considered off limits?

UPDATED: If Obama's approval rating were down four points from March, do you think USA Today would have mentioned that trend in its report?