I think some people are overstating Trump's approval "surge." Here is the Real Clear Politics round up. Trump has reached just about 50% approval, which is a high for him. However, in any times of crises, under our presidential system, people tend to rally around the president, no matter how they otherwise feel about him. George Herbert Walker Bush reached massive heights of popularity once the first Iraq War began in 1991, and, in 2004, people voted in a higher number for his son, despite the second Iraq War not going so well at that point, because they did not want to change horses in midstream of a general war situation. Trump is barely registering 50% in this time of a pandemic and an economic shut down the likes of which we have not seen since the Great Depression. And note how the latest polling shows him drifting down after he ridiculously said people should attend Easter services and get back to work.
I think we should also take solace in Biden's polling against Trump better than it's been for some time, despite the obvious and glaring faults people such as myself see with Biden. Whether those polls stay strong for Biden is another question, of course, but, when considering those polls in tandem with the RCP polling roundup of Trump's approval ratings, again, I think Trump is not doing all that well with the public as people want us to think.
And of course, leave it to Teen Vogue, as usual, to help us over our Governor Andrew Cuomo man-crush. It is a striking commentary for our times that the best political analysis tends to come more from fashion magazines, such as Teen Vogue and GQ, than anything on corporate owned television cable news. Cuomo has been astute, strong, and caring in his leadership during this crisis, there is no doubt. But there is a reason Cuomo, who had presidential ambitions, did not try and join the other 100 people running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. There is a reason actress-activist Cynthia Nixon, with no elective office experience, and never having run for public office, garnered nearly 37% of the vote in a primary in 2018 against Cuomo.
