I don’t think his approval ratings ever dropped low enough to call this a second honeymoon, but Obama’s non-State of the Union on Tuesday boosted his job approval ratings back near all-time highs. Overall, his approval went from 59% before to 67% after—a respectable jump.

But the most interesting result from the Gallup survey was the change in Republican support: Before the speech, 27% of Republicans approved of Obama, and that had held steady for a couple of polling cycles; after the speech, that number climbed to 42%.

Republicans spent weeks chipping away at Obama from all sides and had managed to at least win over their own party, but with one fell swoop he effectively swatted down the opposition and erased any gains they had made.

Nearly half of Republicans now approve of him. How will the Republican leadership deal with this new political reality? They can keep trying to beat Obama in a PR fight, but they are ill-equipped for that battle and are up against the best in the game. Will they instead try to work with the administration? Or will they stay in the wilderness until they come up with a better strategy than opposing volcano monitoring research?