OPINION

The polls don't look good

CNN (36 percent), Quinnipiac (38 percent) and Gallup (40 percent) all recently reported lousy approval ratings for President Trump. We don't yet know if this is statistical noise, or whether the combination of Bob Woodward's book, the anonymous New York Times op-ed, the Paul Manafort conviction and the Michael Cohen guilty plea have cumulatively taken a toll on Trump's support.

These rotten numbers come despite another strong jobs report, highlighting the depth of the president's unpopularity. A bear market, one imagines, would send his numbers even lower, setting off panic in Republican quarters.

The CNN poll offers some additional data of interest to candidates on the ballot in November. Trump's strong disapproval number is nearly 50 percent (48 percent, to be exact), whereas his "strongly approve" number is below 30 percent (27 percent).

He is just below 50 percent approval for his handling of the economy, but his other policy numbers are atrocious. On trade (53 percent disapproval to 35 percent approval), immigration (59 to 35) and foreign policy (56 to 36), voters' disapproval far outstrips their approval. Republicans in deep-red regions might want to rethink running on "Helping Trump's agenda." It's the last thing majorities of Americans in many areas want to succeed.

Trump's personal qualities rate poorly as well, be it on "cares about people like you" (36 percent say yes, 62 percent say no); "can bring the kind of change we need" (40 to 57); is "honest and trustworthy" (32 to 65); "effectively manages government" (41 to 56); is "uniting the country" (30 to 67); and is someone respondents are "proud to have as president" (32 to 64).

As other polls have shown, Trump polls terribly among women voters (29 percent approval, 65 percent disapproval), college graduates (31 to 65), white college graduates (34 to 63) and independents (31 to 59). It is only because of his strong support among Republicans (82 percent) and a small margin of support among white non-college-educated voters (50 percent approval to 45 percent disapproval) that the bottom hasn't dropped out of his overall approval numbers.

Unless you are a Republican running for a seat in a deep-red area (and therefore should not theoretically need presidential support), you'd have to be foolish to either identify with Trump or, worse, be seen with him.

Increasingly, Republicans are down to ludicrous negative barbs (an attack ad from Sen. Ted Cruz portrays his opponent, Rep. Beto O'Rourke, as pro-flag burning), conspiracy-mongering and/or whipping up fear of an impeachment battle. Listen, if Trump keeps going downhill, impeachment is going to sound more like a feature, not a bug, that comes with electing Democrats.

Editorial on 09/13/2018

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