4 charts show why Trump’s GOP may face a worse midterm fate than Bush’s 2006 ‘thumping’

Reported by MS NOW. The paragraphs below are the opening of that article, reproduced word for word — not a summary, and not the whole piece.

Steve Rattner breaks down the key indicators that suggest Trump is entering the midterms in a weaker position than George W. Bush in 2006.

With less than a month until Election Day , Steve Rattner broke down the “striking similarities” between this year’s midterm elections and the 2006 elections.

Back then, voters faced a similar mix of war, rising costs and a deeply unpopular president — a combination that proved disastrous for the incumbent president and his party. But as the “Morning Joe” economic analyst’s numbers showed, President Donald Trump may be entering this election in an even weaker position than former President George W. Bush was in two decades ago.

Rattner began with gas prices. The former Treasury official said Bush had a “tough run” heading into the 2006 midterms.

“He had a war; he had Hurricane Katrina, which also added to gas prices; and so, for most of his second term up to this point, gas prices were higher than they have been for Trump,” he said.

But by Election Day, gas prices under Bush had fallen sharply. Adjusted for inflation, Americans paid an average of $3.69 per gallon in 2006, compared with $4.35 today, a gap Rattner said means the Trump administration is “facing a worse gas price situation than they were in 2006.”