Newsweek, not known for its Republican or Trump enthusiasm, is playing it straight for right now. On Friday the online magazine reported, “More American voters believe they are better off after four years under President Donald Trump than they did at the end of the first term of former president Barack Obama, new polling data has revealed.”

A Gallup poll said that a solid majority of registered voters, 56 percent, believed they were better off now compared to four years ago under the Obama administration.

The Gallup Poll has just come out with the incredible finding that 56% of you say that you are better off today, during a pandemic, than you were four years ago (OBiden). Highest number on record! Pretty amazing!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2020

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When asked whether they were better or worse off toward the end of Obama’s first term in the White House, only 45 percent told Gallup their situation had improved over the four years between 2008 and December 2012. Obama won reelection anyway. But that’s an 11 point lead for Trump on that all important issue for reelection.

In contrast, Ronald Reagan’s numbers were 12 points below Trump as he faced re-election in 1984. Only 44 percent of polled voters said they were better off after his first term than they were in 1980. Reagan won a record smashing landslide anyway and Trump is leading the Gipper’s numbers by double digits. Wow.

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To make the news even better, in Gallup’s poll data, nearly half of voters said they agreed with Trump’s stances on key policy issues, putting him three points ahead of his Democratic challenger Joe Biden. So Trump has voter feeling and issues. He’s closing in. As we’ve said, going into the late part of an election season it’s better to be the hunter than the hunted.

Gallup surveyed more than 900 registered voters between September 14 and September 28 for its latest poll. Its margin of error stands at four percentage points.

And pollster FiveThirtyEight’s current election polling averages show the president is currently polling 2 percent higher than he was during the week following his first debate against Clinton. So he’s beating his 2016 debate poll numbers as well.

This will come down to the wire and it won’t be over in November. But this is starting to look like 2016 all over again. The political and media class, engaging in confirmation bias, count Trump out because of various biased polls, though some polls reflect reality and a Trump advantage. However, whatever happens, it won’t be pretty.