With 16 days left to go before the midterm elections, Democrats’ quest to create a blue wave has become more complicated.

New numbers from a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday show the out-of-power party with a 9-point generic lead among likely voters.

But President Trump’s approval ratings are at their best yet – 47 percent.

Chuck Todd, the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” dubbed it the “choose your own adventure” midterm election.

“Is there a Democratic wave coming? We’ve got data to support that. Has a surge of post-Kavanaugh enthusiasm for Republicans turned back the Democrats’ momentum? There’s data to support that. Or could this be a typical midterm with the Democrats making just modest gains? There’s data to support that,” Todd said, referring to bruising Senate confirmation battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“The current data shows that the Democratic advantage has ebbed but still with a large advantage. And the GOP shows some life,” said Democratic pollster Fred Yang, who conducted the poll alongside Republican pollster Bill McInturff.

The survey shows that Democrats don’t have as big of an advantage as they had among registered voters, a wider pool.

They’re up 7 points, but in September they were up 12.

But for the first time ever in NBC and the Wall Street Journal’s polling, the likely voter model – which narrows the poll to only those expected to turn out – shows a better number for Democrats than the registered voter number.

Fifty percent of likely voters want to see Democrats in charge of Congress, versus 41 percent for the Republicans.

In the midterms, Republicans have historically had the likely voter advantage.

Key elements of the Democrats’ base – women, Latinos and younger voters – are expressing high interest in next month’s election.

The number of those registering a “9” or a “10” in interest on a 10-point scale has increased by double digits when compared to the average from prior NBC/WSJ polls.

Overall, 72 percent of Democrats said they have high interest in the midterm election, with 68 percent of Republicans agreeing.

At the same time, Republicans are seeing their largest lead in polling history on their handling of the economy, with respondents giving them a 15-point advantage over the Democrats.

Trump has also bumped his approval rating up three points in the last month to 47 percent, his highest ever – although 49 percent said they disapprove.

Historically, though, a 47 percent presidential approval rating has delivered a whopping to the party occupying the White House.

President Obama had a 47 percent approval rating in advance of the 2010 midterms and the Democrats lost 63 seats in the House.

President Clinton had a 48 percent approval rating and the Democrats lost 52 seats in the House.

President George W. Bush had a much higher approval rating – a post-9/11 67 percent – and gained eight seats for the Republican Party in the House.

The poll surveyed 900 registered voters between Oct. 14-17 and has a plus-minus 3.3 percentage point margin of error.

The poll of the 645 likely voters has a plus-minus 3.9 percentage point margin of error.