The Republican Party comes into Election Day with a significant handicap. The party’s leader, the man in the White House, is less popular nationally coming into a midterm election than any president since 1974, save one: George W. Bush in 2006, whose popularity in 2002 had vanished four years later thanks to the military quagmire in Iraq. …
There is something else that is broadly different about Trump, too — something that may not help in electoral politics but which provides a buffer of safety that past unpopular presidents (including, to some extent, Bush) have not enjoyed. Trump has a major media organization that’s broadly treating his presidency in favorable terms — and which includes staffers whose support for Trump is explicit. CONT.
Philip Bump, Washington Post