Rasmussen Polling wrote a commentary last year outlining ten factors that will determine who the next president will be. Among those was, of course, the candidates themselves and their rung mates, the state of the economy, the ongoing culture wars, and how vigorously the candidates fight in swing states. But one factor, which seems to have an influential and historical trend in elections, is the current president s approval rating. As Rasmussen found:Postwar history suggests that when a president has weak approval, his party pays a price in the next election. Harry Truman (1952), Lyndon Johnson (1968), Gerald Ford (1976), Jimmy Carter (1980), George H.W. Bush (1992), and George W. Bush (2008) all had mediocre-to-poor approval ratings, and the opposing party won all of those elections (defeating incumbents Ford, Carter, and H.W. Bush, and winning open-seat races in the others).When President Obama was elected in November 2008, George W. Bush s approval rating was a dismal 19 percent. In July 1992, when George H.W Bush was campaigning against Bill Clinton, his approval rating fell to a record low 29 percent.Well if this is a precedential factor that helps determine who the president will be, Democrats should be breathing a sigh of relief.A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows President Obama s approval rating is 51 percent, while his disapproval rating is 46 percent. The last time President Obama had the majority of approval from the country (in this poll), was during his second inauguration in January 2013.The numbers, NBC shows, could be beneficial to Hillary Clinton:The president s relative political strength could be a significant boon for Hillary Clinton, whose 2016 candidacy is largely focused on preserving key aspects of his Democratic policy-making.The poll shows that Clinton, despite her own high negative ratings as an individual candidate, could enjoy some other structural advantages as well in the 2016 contestAstoundingly, 54 percent of Independents (remember, President Obama lost Independents in 2012) approve of the job he s doing.That s good news for Democrats, who are relying on a large turnout of Independent voters to counter Donald Trump s right-wing populism.Similarly, Gallup Polling shows the president s approval rating stands at 52 percent, up two points from the previous week. The last time President Obama had an approval rating of 52 percent (according to their polling), was in February 2013.This is good news for Democrats. Clinton, who is well on the way of becoming the nominee, has made continuing the Obama legacy a staple in her campaign. That resounds well with Democrats and apparently should with Independents.Featured image via Drew Angerer/Getty Images