More evidence this morning of the so-called President’s cratering approval ratings. This time from Rasmussen, pretty much as big an in-the-bag-for-the-GOP polling firm as there is in the United States.

Rasmussen famously has what is called in the polling industry “prominent house effects” which tend to skew their results toward Republicans. Now, all polling firms have house effects. They are a result of the methodology a particular firm applies, the questions asked, the inherent biases that exist in everyone, and so forth. Some firms are better than others at controlling these effects.

But, a great way to control for house effects of course is to look at the same poll over and over again and look for changes. The idea of course is that the house effects are the same from instance to instance and therefore the change will tell you the real nature of the underlying opinion shifts.

Well, back to the poll.

In Rasmussen’s tracking poll released today, they found that 42% of likely voters surveyed approved of the job the President is doing and 58% did not approve. Moreover 27% strongly approved and (wow!) 48% strongly disapproved.

But why is that striking? We all know the President’s approval ratings are in the crapper.

Well, consider this:

At his inauguration only 9 weeks ago 44% of the likely voters surveyed by Rasmussen in the same tracking poll strongly approved of President Trump. That number is now 27%. Put another way, more than 1/3 of the voters who strongly approved of his performance only 2 months ago no longer do so.

This is the so-called President’s base crumbling.

These numbers are backed up by the McClatchy-Marist poll released late last week which showed Trumps approval at 38% down from 41% earlier in the month. Says Marist:

Trump also has a problem with his Republican base. While many GOP’ers still support the president and his positions, the proportion of those who do, has declined in the past month. There has been a shift in Republicans’ views about Trump’s job performance. While more than three in four Republicans, 78%, have a positive opinion of how the president is performing in his post, the proportion has declined from 85% last month. Comparatively, 84% of Democrats and 52% of independents disapprove of how Trump is doing his job as president.

Clearly the healthcare debacle has proved to be a profoundly discouraging moment for Trump’s supporters.

What makes this even sweeter is the near impossible situation that the Trumpenator has put himself and the GOP in with regards to Obamacare. On one hand, they have failed to execute on their most important promise to the base – the promise that has been force fed into their voters’ minds by Fox News and the Right-wing infotainment propaganda complex- Repeal Obamacare! And Trump is being punished for it. And yet, on the other hand, the legislation that the GOP has proposed will be devastating economically to those very same voters. A massive tax giveaway to the wealthy paid for by higher costs, worse access, and inferior care for Trump’s own supporters.

Not implementing their promise is devastating politically for Trump. Implementing it will be devastating economically for his supporters. Trump’s opponents rub their hands in glee. His fair-weather GOP allies start to smell blood in the water.

Mired in scandal, dependant on a dysfunctional Republican congress and even fucking up his executive orders, we see a Presidency in free-fall but one that maybe hasn’t yet reached its nadir.

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