With a 76-percent approval rating, Michelle Obama is the most popular First Lady in years — and even trumps her presidential husband.

A recent Pew Research Poll says that while 76 percent of the country approves of the First Lady, only 73 percent approves of the president. Still, as numbers go, those are both pretty excellent.

Surprisingly, 67 percent of Republican women approve of Mrs. Obama, a 21-percent jump since Inauguration. (For the record, at this time in their tenures, Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton had 64 percent and 60 percent overall approval ratings, respectivaly.)

The Chicago-Tribune provides a few more details on what people think of the current First Lady:

‘In a word,’ Pew reports, people say this about the First Lady: ‘Classy’ (34 people said so in the survey), ‘Nice/nice lady’ (32 said so), ‘Intelligent’ (24 said so), ‘Strong’ (22 said so), ‘Elegant’ (15 said so), ‘Good’ (15 said so).

Meanwhile, Mrs. Obama is no doubt popular with schoolchildren. She has been spending a lot of time with them since taking office, and invited a few local students to the White House yesterday for Take Your Child to Work Day.

When asked what it feels like to be First Lady, Mrs. Obama replied, "You know, it feels just like probably being a mom, you know, being a worker, you know, I’ve worked all my life … And I consider this a very important job, but I have to take it just as seriously as anyone who does their job." And, of course, the kids wanted to know all about first dog Bo Obama, whom Mrs. Obama described as "crazy" because he’s a night owl.

Here’s a brief video of the First Lady’s remarks: