It's A World Gone Crazier . . .

. . . Or maybe just voters are.

In the week since the mid-term election, President Obama's approval ratings have gone up despite what is widely viewed as a stinging rebuke to his party and agenda.

There are several possible explanations for the four-point bump in the Gallup Daily Tracking Poll that do not take into account hard drugs and non-medicinal alcohol:

* The president struck a mostly conciliatory tone in a post-election address.

* The stock market rallied to the highest levels since two months before the 2008 election.

* A better-than-expected post-election jobs report possibly heralding the end of the Bush Recession and beginning of the Boehner Recovery.

* Touchy feely-ness over the president's $200 million a day diplomatic tour of Asia.

* Americans' memories are even shorter than supposed.

The uptick, while not ginormous in absolute terms, also runs against the grain. The approval ratings of former Presidents Bush and Clinton decline after their parties' midterm election losses in 2006 and 1994, respectively.

Cartoon by Michael Ramirez/Investors Business Daily