OPINION:
Finally, a poll that means something.
A new survey from NBC/Wall Street Journal finds that — and this is the yada, yada, yawn part — President Donald Trump’s popularity with the American people has hit a new low.
But here’s the part that actually means something — the part that doesn’t just take a snapshot of fickle voter feelings at a particular moment and try to cast it as a conclusive, scientific, and lasting rating of Trump: The same survey found voters still like Trump more than Hillary Clinton.
As Mediaite noted: “The poll finds that 36 percent of respondents have either a very positive or somewhat positive feeling about the president. That’s a drop of two points from the previous survey in June and a new low since Trump won the election.”
Polls are always finding Trump has fallen out of favor with the American people. That’s the bread and butter of the polling world — to find the latest metric the media can then pounce upon to paint Trump in a negative light.
It’s the metric that was used to conclude, with little-to-no margin of error, that Trump could not, would not win the White House. Need more be said?
But this portion of the survey is significant — again, as noted by Mediaite: “But [Trump] fares better in the category than his general election rival, Hillary Clinton. The poll shows that 30 percent of people feel either very positive or somewhat positive about the former secretary of state. That’s down from 32 percent the last time respondents were asked the question in December 2016, shortly after her loss. But in October, 40 percent gave her a positive rating.”
Trump’s approval, meanwhile, sits at 40 percent.
The takeaway?
Voters may not give gold stars to Trump. But they certainly don’t hand them to Clinton. And that suggests this: In a new matchup, a new election, held today, Trump would very likely beat Clinton, yet again.
Trump’s poll numbers may stutter on the approval scale — as they always do, as the media always paints. But voters are saying with pretty strong certainty: At least he’s not Clinton. Voters may be disgruntled — as they frequently are — but they’re not regretting their November choice.
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