Pollsters get to ask all sorts of intriguing questions as they take the temperature of the electorate with questions focused on a politician’s job performance or record. But nobody in this town can remember the last time voters were asked, “Is the president nuts?”

Well to be fair, veteran and affable EPIC-MRA pollster Bernie Porn was not quite that clumsy but his question about the current occupant of the White House amounted to the same thing: Do you think President Donald Trump is mentally unstable or stable?

Now, are you sitting down?

The next four persons you meet out of the next 10 think he is unstable.

Forty-two percent in our state think that while 47 percent disagree.

But that’s just the beginning. What you are about to read is a poignant insight into how divided this state is when it comes to Mr. Trump. We are deeply divided based on gender, education level, race, and region.

When Gov. Rick Snyder talks about “One Michigan,” on this issue we are anything but.

Forty-eight of the women think the president is unstable. But 56 percent of the guys they hang around with think they are wrong. You get the same results when testing the attitude of independent female voters vs. their male counterparts. Fifty-eight percent of those men are fine with the president but 69 percent of the women are not.

Sixty-nine percent of the African-Americans think “The Donald” is a little wacky while 50 percent of the whites disagree. That’s a 19 point gap.

Hang on it gets worse.

Forty-nine percent in outstate Michigan, where you folks are, are not concerned about the president’s temperament but they’d have a tough time convincing the 58 percent of the folks in Wayne County that they are right.

Finally when you look at education, 49 percnet with less than a high school diploma say Mr. Trump is stable while 44 percent of the college grads don’t concur.

These are fascinating findings, which means to keep the holidays peaceful, avoid talking about this with anybody you know. But there are also some powerful political implications for all the pols who are running for office in the New Year.

If you are GOP governor candidate Bill Schuette, who has hooked his wagon to the guy on Pennsylvania Avenue, how does he secure the female vote when he says the president is great and 48 percent of the women think Mr. Schuette is nuts for saying that?

Conversely if you’re a Democrat running for governor, if you dump all over the president, you have no shot at the angry white males, 56 percent of whom, loved Mr. Trump. Democrats may not get them regardless but this is just one more reason for those males to ignore any Democratic candidate.

Even though Mr. Trump is not on the ballot next November, don’t kid yourself, his persona and policies will be in play and if he gets us into World War III, his unstable numbers could go off the charts.