DEMOCRATS DON'T COUNT

GOP governors who oppose public health are slipping in the polls -- but it's not a problem, according to Politico, because they're slipping with the wrong people.

Republican governors crusading against vaccine mandates are facing significantly lower approval ratings on their handling of the coronavirus pandemic than their counterparts. But they’re not worried.

... Just last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott flat-out banned vaccine requirements, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis followed up by vowing to sue the Biden administration.

But new research shows governors in states without vaccine mandates — or where they’ve outright prohibited such a requirement — have “significantly lower” approval ratings for their handling of Covid-19.

In states with vaccine mandates, 52 percent of people approve or strongly approve of their governors’ handling of the pandemic, according to the latest survey from the Covid States Project.... That coronavirus approval rating drops to 42 percent for governors in states with no vaccine requirements. And it takes yet another hit — dropping to just 36 percent — in states where governors have barred vaccine mandates.

So why aren't DeSantis and Abbott worried?

... there’s the political calculus. Several Republican governors, including Abbott in Texas, are facing primary challenges from their right. Some, like DeSantis in Florida ... have eyes on 2024. Both of those factors are sending GOP governors scrambling to shore up support among the party’s base.

This is written as if all that matters is whether Republican governors please Republican voters. The fact that both governors will also face general election voters in 2022, in purple states -- and DeSantis might face them nationwide in 2024 -- is apparently irrelevant. Who cares what Democratic and independent voters think?

This is the same Politico story that features the following sentence:

Vaccine mandates are politically divisive but nationally have broad support.

If they "have broad support," how can they be "politically divisive"? Oh, right -- it'd because the one group that vehemently opposes them is the party of real Americans.

The Morning Consult/POLITICO poll from August showed eight in 10 Democrats and at least half of independent voters want to require vaccinations for all Americans.

But Republicans don't like mandates, so mandates are "divisve." Right. Got it.