Donald Trump just got hit with some terrible news

| 9:09 am EDT September 30, 2020
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Donald Trump keeps finding new ways to remind us that there simply is no bottom when it comes to his depravity, or his willingness to embarrass himself and the country. The question has been whether there is a bottom when it comes to his popularity level.

Ordinarily both presidential candidates get around 40% almost automatically, based on party line voters and die hard supporters. Even in modern presidential elections that we’ve considered blowouts, the loser has still gotten around 40%. Trump has been at around 40% in the polls for some time, which means that Trump is theoretically at zero and can’t go any lower.

But during the debate, Trump put on a display that was horrifyingly unpresidential and inhuman, even by his standards. Sure, his slimy base loved it. But the question is whether any of his least enthusiastic supporters – the ones who have been just barely hanging on in their support of him – might have been so turned off that they might finally bail on him. After all, when a Trump supporter stays home instead of voting, it’s a vote (or half a vote) for Biden.

To that end, CNN’s debate poll was potentially instructive. CNN found that, among its viewers who watched the debate, 60% thought Biden won, while just 28% thought Trump won. Granted, CNN’s audience isn’t a precise microcosm of the voting populace. But a disparity this large suggests that at least some of Trump’s potential voters thought he lost the debate. Considering how aggressive Trump was, it’s certainly not because they thought he was too weak. The only reason for them to conclude that he lost was that they were turned off by his boorish behavior.

So now we’ll have to watch over the next week to see if Joe Biden’s consistent eight point lead in the polling averages finally goes up, and if Donald Trump’s consistently ugly 40%-ish poll numbers finally go down. Keep in mind we’re looking at the averages, not just any one new poll. In any case, with Trump on the ropes, now is the time for us to double down more than ever on voter registration, phone banking, and volunteering – so we can finish him off.