Poll: GOP and Trump are no longer under water

There’s more good polling news for Republicans today — the best yet in this cycle. A Politico/Morning Consult poll finds that the GOP has pulled, in effect, level with the Dems in the generic congressional poll. 39 percent of registered voters say they would support the GOP candidate for Congress in their district, while 38 percent would back the Democratic candidate.

President Trump’s numbers have also improved dramatically, according to this poll. Voters divide evenly — 47 percent to 47 percent — on whether they approve of the job he’s doing as president. Until recently, Trump was way below water in most such polling.

Strange as it may seem, voters seem to care more about the economy and their tax bill than about Gen. Kelly’s staff work on Rob Porter and whether Trump said “s***hole.” Who knows? The day may come when the mainstream media calls Trump a “teflon president.”

If there’s a problem for Republicans, it probably lies in the intensity of anti-Trump feeling. In some high profile special elections, such sentiment has helped produce heavy pro-Democrat turnout, which has been decisive

Those who approve of Trump’s performance presumably fall into two groups: the Trump base and Republicans who don’t particularly like him but feel he’s doing a good job overall. The latter cohort isn’t enthusiastic. The former is enthusiastic about Trump but not necessarily about the GOP candidate[s] running in their district/state.

Nonetheless, for now there’s good reason to doubt that the midterms will produce the “thumping” or “shellacking” of Republicans that Democrats were so confident of couple of months ago.

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