Dem
47
GOP
53
As long as we're on the North America beat, let us briefly note this news from the Mexican newspaper El Financiero (roughly, the Mexican analogue to the Wall Street Journal). In their latest poll, the paper found that Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum has an 85% approval rating.
Such a number is inconceivable to followers of American politics, but Mexico is not quite as polarized as the U.S. is these days. Sheinbaum opened her term at 70%, dipped a little, and then enjoyed an upward trend. Here are the approval numbers from the past five El Financiero polls:
You don't need us, and you don't need to speak Spanish, to see that Sheinbaum began a distinctively upward trend in November of last year. Hmmmm... hard to imagine what might have happened.
When it comes to dealing with her neighbor to the North, Sheinbaum is in a little bit of a different position than Justin Trudeau/Mark Carney. First, Canada is in a better position to withstand some amount of economic aggression from the United States than Mexico is. Second, although it should not be this way, Donald Trump responds differently to women than he does to men. So, Trudeau/Carney can get away with an approach that's more on the "iron fist" end of the spectrum, while Sheinbaum has to operate more on the "velvet glove" end of the spectrum. And indeed, she's already developed enough skill at dealing with Trump that she's being called the "Trump whisperer." (Previously, that title belonged to Maggie Haberman; we don't know if she and Sheinbaum are now sharing it, or if Sheinbaum has stolen it away.)
The bottom line here is that the politicians running both Canada and Mexico are very popular right now, their populaces are unusually unified, and much of that is due to their resisting Trump in various ways. This will not make it easier for The Donald to accomplish... whatever the hell it is he's trying to accomplish.
Naturally, if any readers in Mexico have thoughts about the political situation, we welcome those at comments@electoral-vote.com. (Z)