Tucson to some extent, but mostly the massive MSM effort to portray him positively no matter what. And the election season is over, which took his unpopular policies and his supporters in Congress out of the news for a time. That helped him.
Should have added: the lame duck session is beginning to fade from memory, and we have a new Congress.
Don’t underestimate the importance of the election season being over.
If they published a pack of lies like this just before the election, they would be instantly exposed when Obama’s side got pulverized.
They do it now to DRIVE public opinion as much as they can while no objective measure is soon to be had.