President Obama's post-election honeymoon with Americans is continuing, with his job approval hitting 53 percent, the highest in years, pollster John Zogby tells Secrets.

And his glow might help on Capitol Hill. The pollster said that 54 percent now want Republicans to bow to the president's demands and that he has a mandate to push through his tax-heavy fix-it plan for the coming "fiscal cliff."

The new poll of 795 likely voters, conducted Monday and Tuesday, put Obama's job approval rating at 53%, with 45% disapproving. Those, said Zogby, are "his best numbers since early in his first term."

Plus, 50% are optimistic about the next four years.

In Zogby's poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent, the president so far has won voters over to his argument in the fight with Republicans over taxes and spending. Zogby said that a majority of voters, 51 percent, feel Obama has the best interests of the middle class; 43 percent say the Republicans. And by a factor of 48 percent to 38 percent, voters feel that the president and Democrats have a "mandate from the American people to enact the Democratic Party's platform."