Free Republic

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” CNN Senior Political Data Reporter Harry Enten said that inflation and population-adjusted disposable personal income has declined over the past quarter and since the first year of the Biden administration and “there is this disconnect. But I don’t think there’s this disconnect between Americans and what’s actually going on. I think there might be this disconnect between what President Biden thinks is going on and what is actually going on.” Host Erin Burnett began the segment by saying that President Biden admitted that “Americans are not feeling the positive effects of an economy that...

Washington (CNN)First things first: The theme song of the week is the theme from The Larry Sanders Show. Poll of the week: A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that President Donald Trump's approval rating among voters nationwide is 45%. His disapproval rating is 52%. This makes for a net approval (approval - disapproval) of -7 points. The average poll has Trump's net approval among voters at -9 points. What's the point: Trump's 2020 strategy seemed to be in full swing this past week. He looks to be doubling down on a campaign of hardline immigration policies and racial...

The political future of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party over the next two years really comes down to one question: Do traditional measures of popularity mean anything when it comes to Trump? If they do, the Republican Party and Trump could be in major trouble. Usually, we wouldn't even think to ask whether a president with around a 40% approval rating would end up hurting his political party. Yet Trump did something that was seemingly impossible in 2016: He won the presidency, despite being the most unpopular candidate since at least 1952 and with Americans seeming to like...

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign, which officially kicks off Monday, has so far attracted paltry support from Republican voters, according to polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as nationally. He’s down near Chris Christie! Yet, when we talk about him in the FiveThirtyEight office, we usually put Rubio in the top tier, in front of everyone except Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, the two candidates at the top of the polls. Why? Rubio is both electable and conservative, and in optimal proportions. He’s in a position to satisfy the GOP establishment, tea party-aligned voters and social conservatives. In...