rikster wrote: ↑Wed Mar 05, 2025 10:57 am
The polling numbers on Trump though, those surprise me this early in the game.
I'll have to watch the video a bit longer, I didn't get to the part where they discussed his poll numbers...
My understanding is that his poll numbers dealing with his popularity are historically the worst of any President other than his first term, at this stage of his Presidency...
He polls in the mid 30% on things like his handling of the economy...
I do wonder who they are polling? If he received votes from just 30% of those elegible to vote and only 62% of Americans took the time to vote, should they be considering opinions from those who didn't vote?
There are multiple methodologies to all polls; some polls have Trump under water, some have him above 50. Some use people who voted last time; others are of all adults. Some polls had the Harris/Trump election as neck and neck, one even had Harris winning Iowa. All polls have Trump more popular than Biden during Biden's presidency, but most have him below where Biden was a month into his Presidency.
Polls are both unreliable (or at least present an assertive view of public opinion while in actuality having low confidence value) and pretty meaningless when trying to assess job performance. Because public policy, the economy, these things don't operate on a pitch by pitch basis, or even an inning by inning basis, yet that's what these polls are assessing. New job approval polls every day.... Shows what?
Take for example the meeting with Zelensky -- and we are still in the same inning on it. One might try to evaluate job approval on the pitch -- that day, after showing that meeting, and say, well, it was uncomfortable and didn't result in the rare earth's deal, FAIL! But a few days later, and the deal is there. So, not fail?
More generally, factored into today's approval is fear and speculation. About a European alliance falling apart, about a positive feedback loop on tariffs with close North American allies, etc. That fear -- not an assessment of performance, but people's projections of future consequences, plays heavily into good job/bad job, particularly early in a Presidency. But the more important thing to evaluate is not one one's own projections, but on the assessment of the consequences, and for that, consequences have to play out. The first move influences how things will play out, but rarely is it dispositive. Its the difference between assessing performance as a pundit in real time vs. as a historian. What happens in the future is the fear of a breakdown in the strength of the USA-Canada-Europe alliance doesn't come to pass? Or it passes, and you know what, like many anxieties, the occurrence isn't as bad as the fear of the occurrence.
And maybe that's the best way to put it. Polls of new President performance are driven by (1) partisanship (the 35% on each side that are wired to approve or disapprove regardless) and (2) anxiety and I suppose its yang -- hope.