Competition is usually fierce to publish the most worthless opinion on the New York Times opinion pages. But if we just want to count so far for this month, the prize definitely goes to Ross Douthat.
In his column on Saturday, Douthat confidently declared that while President Trump “may not be removable by the impeachment process,” there is another option for Democrats. “All you have to do is beat him.”
My goodness, why didn’t anyone else think of that?
Douthat’s clarity through simplicity comes a little late, though. It’s a foregone conclusion that Trump will be acquitted in the Senate trial, leaving Democrats with nothing left but to hope they can defeat him in the election.
Every serious Democrat knows that’s a long shot for several reasons, and yet, Douthat repeated the line over and over again that “all you have to do is beat him,” as though this will be a cakewalk.
“Trump could have been stopped in the [2016] Republican primaries the old-fashioned way — by being beaten at the polls,” wrote Douthat. (Is that all it would have taken?!) “His base was limited, his popularity fluctuated, and if his rivals had recognized the threat earlier, campaigned against him consistently, strategized with one another more effectively, and avoided their own meltdowns and missteps, there was no reason he could not have been defeated.”
If the sun only didn’t shine on water, causing it to evaporate and form clouds, there’s no reason we couldn’t permanently stop rain from falling!
Hey Democrats, Ross Douthat has some advice: avoid “meltdowns and missteps.” Oh, and if you could strategize with one another more effectively, that couldn’t hurt either.
More wisdom from Douthat: “A failed impeachment doesn’t give him new powers or new popularity; it just shows that the normal way to be rid of an unpopular president is the way that Democrats must take. All you have to do is beat him.”
Except, a failed impeachment may actually have given him new popularity. A new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll on Sunday shows that Trump’s national approval rating has gone up 2 points, from 44% to 46%, since mid-December, when the impeachment was at its fever pitch.
In that same poll, 36% of registered voters said they “strongly” approve of Trump’s performance. That’s the best score Trump has gotten on that measure since the question was first asked in June 2017. It’s up 3 points since mid-December and up 14 points from its all-time low in April 2018.
For context, Trump won in 2016 with an Election Day favorability rating of only 38%.
But don’t worry, all you have to do is beat him!
