Donald Trump would be on track to win a historic landslide in November — if so many US voters didn’t find him personally repugnant.

Roughly 53 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the former president. And yet, when asked about Trump’s ability to handle key issues — or the impact of his policies — voters routinely give the Republican candidate higher marks than President Biden.

In a YouGov survey released this month, Trump boasted an advantage over Biden on 10 of the 15 issues polled. On the three issues that voters routinely name as top priorities — the economy, immigration, and inflation — respondents said that Trump would do a better job by double-digit margins.

Meanwhile, in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, 40 percent of voters said that Trump’s policies had helped them personally, while just 18 percent said the same of Biden. If Americans could elect a normal human being with Trump’s reputation for being “tough” on immigration and good at economics, they would almost certainly do so.

Biden is fortunate that voters do not have that option. But to erase Trump’s small but stubborn lead in the polls, the president needs to erode his GOP rival’s advantage on the issues.

  • mwguy
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    8 months ago

    Stop vs. Pause is a distinction without substance when 30% of the population is illiterate, and over 50% can’t read or write at a 6th grade level or above.

    Like I get it, I get what you’re saying and it’s technically correct. But to the rube who’s going to be voting (or at least 30% who will), they just know that under Trump their student loans stopped; and then Biden restarted them.

      • mwguy
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        8 months ago

        You’d be surprised. No Child Left Behind caused a lot of schools to “auto-pass” failing students to get them off of their rolls. And if you pass high school you can almost always get into a lower-tier public school or a community college. Also, you have to combine that with straight-up Scam colleges that accept anybody.