Democrats keep getting bad news. On Monday night, the Iowa Democratic Party bollixed its caucuses in a way that generated more ill will inside the party. On Tuesday morning, Democrats awoke to the news that U.S. President Donald Trump hit a new high in his job approval rating: He is now at 49 percent, according to Gallup. The Republican Party is more popular than it has been since 2005.
It's just a coincidence that the Iowa meltdown happened right before Gallup released its poll numbers. But it's a coincidence that adds to the signs that Trump is in better shape for re-election than Democrats had thought he would be.
He has a unified party. For much of the last four years, fractures among Republicans have occupied a lot of journalistic attention. Would an appreciable number of Republicans stay home in the 2016 election? Would several Republicans in Congress vote to impeach and remove Trump? No and no. As president, Trump has sided with Republican voters on the issues that large numbers of them care about — while Democrats have moved further away from their mainstream.