Hey Wid, some observations if you don't mind:
1. the forum already has
two threads dedicated to this topic. Just FYI in case you feel like starting another thread the next time Trump's Rasmussen number temporarily eclipses 50%.
2. it would be incorrect to say that Trump is back to his pre-virus high. (His pre-virus high in the Rasmussen poll was 59% on January 26, 2017. If we exclude the "honeymoon phase" of his presidency, then his previous high was 53% on September 24, 2019.)
3. the Rasmussen poll is an example of
normalization of deviance: "The gradual process through which unacceptable practice or standards become acceptable. As the deviant behavior is repeated without catastrophic results, it becomes the social norm"
4. Trump has never remained above 50% or below 41% in the Rasmussen poll for more than 5 consecutive days, and this time will be no exception.
5. Rasmussen picked Hillary to win in 2016.
6. As I have explained several times before, there are multiple factors which explain why the Rasmussen poll routinely shows Trump with an approval rating 5-10 points higher than most other polls:
- Rasmussen only dials landlines (conservatives are more likely to own a landline)
- Rasmussen only dials numbers published in the phone book (conservatives are less likely to have an unpublished number)
- Rasmussen only calls during dinner hours (conservatives are more likely to be home)
- Rasmussen does not call back if phone is not answered (conservatives are more likely to be home, and therefore more likely to answer)
- Rasmussen only polls people who self-identify as "likely voters" (conservatives are much more likely to self-identify as "likely voters")
- Rasmussen only uses automated recordings (which reduces the likelihood of a "shy Trump voter" refusing to respond)
Basically, the Rasmussen poll was specifically engineered to create an artificially-high approval number for a Republican president. And yet it still can't keep Trump over 50% for more than a couple days at a time.
At any rate, a far better gauge of Trump's approval -- using the same Rasmussen methodology -- is their
Right Direction/Wrong Track poll, which currently shows that only 31% of respondents believe that the country (under President Trump) is heading in the right direction.