An article by Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report focuses on a puzzling phenomenon:

[A]t this point, the share of voters who say they would vote for Biden over Trump is significantly higher than his job approval rating. 

To put it simply: Biden has a base of voters who don't really approve of his job performance.  To me, this is a new phenomenon in American politics.

For example, a March 29 Quinnipiac poll found Biden's job approval rating at a dismal 37%, with 57% disapproving. Even so, in a head-to-head matchup against Donald Trump, Biden took 48% to 46% for Trump. Biden's vote share was a whopping 11 points higher than his job approval rating.

A Wall Street Journal poll from mid-April found similar results. Biden's overall job approval rating was 42%, yet he led Trump by two points, taking 48% of the vote — a six-point improvement over his approval rating. 

Biden does very well — almost a landslide, in fact — among the segment of the public that "somewhat disapprove" of his job performance:

According to the Quinnipiac survey, the 13% of voters who "somewhat" disapprove of Biden say they'll vote for him by an 11-point margin (48% to 37%) over Trump. The Wall Street Journal poll showed similar results. The 8% of respondents who "somewhat" disapprove of Biden on job approval pick Biden over Trump in a head-to-head matchup, 66% to 19%.

What makes this unusual phenomenon of support among somewhat disapprovers crucial is that it is not shared by Trump.

Trump, meanwhile, does not get support from the "somewhat" disapprovers. According to data from the Wall Street Journal, those who "somewhat" disapprove of Trump picked Biden over Trump, 56% to 18%. (snip)

[T]hose who "somewhat" disapprove of Biden are still committed to supporting him, while those who "somewhat" disapprove of Trump and DeSantis are not planning to vote for either of those men.

But it appears that DeSantis does somewhat better than Trump among those who somewhat disapprove of the man.  This makes sense, since DeSantis has not (yet) been the target of a multi-year campaign of demonization based on false stories, like Russia collusion.  As things stand now, this would be enough to carry six tossup states critical to any successful presidential campaign.

Polling done by the GOP firm Public Opinion Strategies (April 11-13), of 500 voters in each of six battleground states (Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin), finds DeSantis leading Biden in every state, while Trump trails Biden in all six. Moreover, DeSantis, their surveys find, outperforms Trump among Biden "somewhat" disapprovers by anywhere from 8 to 36 points. 

It is a testimony to the incredible power still residing in the corrupt corporate media that Trump is such an anathema that a bloc of voters big enough to swing an election would vote for a candidate of which they disapprove, even somewhat, over him.

That's why the corporate media are pushing stories that DeSantis is all over, that Trump is a lock to receive the nomination.  It is also why they continue to demonize DeSantis, just in case the first initiative to ensure that Trump wins the nomination fails.

Hat tip: Richard Baehr.