From a SurveyUSA News poll (graded "A" by FiveThirtyEight) with a ± 3.8 percentage MOE, conducted Apr. 6-7 among 1,000 adults, who for three weeks have "listen[ed] to America's cheerleader-in-chief rant and ramble," as the pollster eloquently puts it:
"When it comes to the coronavirus, do you find it better to listen to Donald Trump? Or ignore Donald Trump?"
Although today's fools evenly counterbalance the wise, two weeks ago the aforementioned obtuse outweighed the intelligent, 49 percent to 35 percent. So in that narrow sense, the country is on the right track.
"When all is said and done, do you have confidence? Or no confidence? ... in President Trump's ability to lead the nation through these trying times?"
This is when margins of error come in so handy. For the pliable imagination in search of deeper emotional solace, it could be that the "Confidence"-in-Trump crowd is actually populated by about 39 percent of those surveyed, and the "No Confidence" contingent scores as high as 52 percent. In blocks of apocalyptic times such as America-under-Trump, wishful thinking is but a harmless vice.
As for the president's "Net Virus Approval," three weeks ago it was a positive 11;
two weeks ago, a positive 9; and today a negative 2 (48 percent approve, 50
percent disapprove). This compares to governors Cuomo and Newsom's 39 and 36 positive ratings, respectively. Florida's Gov. DeSantis? At a negative 5, he's in Trump territory.
What remains hard to imagine is that given the nation's dedicated division between red brains and blue, the ranting, rambling cheerleader in chief will ever do much worse.