BUT...A NUMBER TO WATCH – AT 10:40 A.M. ET:   As noted yesterday, the president's poll ratings are taking a hit this week.  He's down again in Rasmussen this morning: 

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 44% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Fifty-four percent (54%) disapprove.

The president’s overall job approval ratings have been trending down at week’s end. Is the good will he appears to have generated with his conciliatory State of the Union speech at the end of January going away?

COMMENT:  That's a drop of six points in a week.  Does it involve tariffs?  Reports of Trump's affair with a porn star?   

I'm hoping that the positive news this week will reverse the sudden, alarming trend.  If it continues, though, the White House will have to do some internal polling to find out why.  The president needs the highest poll numbers he can achieve to help his party in the November elections. 

The president is at his best when he speaks over the heads of the reporters, as Reagan did, and directly to the American people.  We need more of that.

March 9, 2018