Somehow, 40% Of Toronto Residents Still Approve Of Rob Ford

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has an approval rating of 40%, according to an Ipsos poll released Wednesday. That's just slightly worse than President Barack Obama's average approval rating in recent national U.S. polls (41.5%).

Ford maintains 40% approval even though:

1. He has admitted to smoking crack;
2. He attributed his choice to smoke crack to being "in one of my drunken stupors";
3. He had to make this admission after long denying it because Toronto police possess a video that appears to show him smoking crack;
4. Ford's driver and confidante, Alexander "Sandro" Lisi, has been indicted for extorting two alleged gang members whom he believed possessed said video;
5. Lisi is also under indictment for drug trafficking;
6. Ford and Lisi exchanged 711 phone calls between March and September, including 18 on the day Ford made his first public comments about the video;
7. Ford has repeatedly been intoxicated in public, including at the Toronto Garrison Ball in March, which he was asked to leave because he was so drunk;
8. At one of the public events where Ford appeared to be drunk, Sarah Thomson, a former political opponent of Ford, says he "grabbed her ass";
9. Ford staffer Isaac Ransom told police that Ford made lewd comments to staffer Olivia Gondek, including "I'm gonna eat you out" and "I banged your pussy" (Gondek, for the record, denies that Ford ever said this, according to the Toronto Star);
10. Ford explained to assembled press on Thursday that he would never have said that to Gondek because "I'm happily married. I've got more than enough to eat at home";
11. Gondek, for the record, also denies that Ford ever said this, according to the Toronto Star;
12. Ford has generally brought disrepute on the city of Toronto, causing American publications such as Business Insider to write negatively about the city when we would usually ignore it; and
13. Ford was hugely embarrassing even before the crack thing happened.

The same Ipsos poll finds that 3 in 4 Torontonians want Ford either to resign or at least step aside to seek substance-abuse treatment. That means at least 15% of the people of Toronto approve of Rob Ford's job performance but want him to step aside anyway.

I wrote, back in May, about why Toronto residents seem to like Rob Ford even though they really, really shouldn't. He is, in some sense, a man of the people, willing to hang out with most anybody - including, unfortunately, organized criminals.

But when is that appeal going to wear thin, Toronto? When will enough be enough?