Once upon a time, just a few weeks ago, Democrats theorized that President Biden’s first State of the Union address would be a turning point for his failing presidency. He would finally trumpet his successes to the nation and declare a victory over Covid-19. He would stand with Ukraine, excoriate Russia, and rally the country around his policies.
That alternate reality, the one that exists only on CNN and MSNBC, never happened.
Instead, Biden’s SOTU address was tepid, his policies dead before they were even uttered, and his handling of Vladimir Putin has been more “leading from behind,” as America did under the Obama years.
It should be a shock to no one, then, that his approval rating has fallen from the ever so slight bounce after the SOTU and hit a new low in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll:
President Joe Biden’s public approval rating fell to a new low of 40% this week, a clear warning sign for his Democratic Party as it seeks to retain control of Congress in the Nov. 8 election, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.
The national poll, conducted on March 21 and 22, found that 54% of Americans disapprove of his job performance as the country struggles with high inflation and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has pushed geopolitical concerns to the fore.
Biden’s approval rating, down three percentage points from the prior week, mirrors that which his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, received at this point in his presidency, as both stood at 40% in mid-March in their second year in office.
Democrats sometimes counter Biden’s bad polls by pointing to Trump’s bad polls. The irony, of course, is that Biden was sold as the “anti-Trump,” the “adult” in the room to restore Washington. If he’s so great, why is he polling at the same level as Trump? The answer is that if it wasn’t for a friendly media covering for his failures, Biden would probably be 8 to 10 points lower.
The larger point here is that Biden hasn’t done one thing to turn the narrative around in his favor. His economic policies have caused record inflation, something some economists now say will last for years. Consider that Biden’s lasting legacy will be driving up the cost of practically everything and eviscerating household budgets for the next half a decade.
Sounds like a wonderful message for Democrats in November.
The issues driving down Biden’s numbers? The economy and now the threat of foreign wars, of course:
Poll respondents cited the economy as their top concern, followed by war and foreign conflicts.
Biden’s popularity began dropping in mid-August as COVID-19 deaths began to rise and the U.S. military faced a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Biden has sought to lower the political temperature following Trump’s divisive presidency.
But Americans remain polarized under his presidency. While 77% of self-identified Democrats said they approved of his job performance, only 10% of self-identified Republicans and 27% of independents gave him a positive rating.
Reuters, in their Biden-friendly writing, tries to smooth things over by calling Trump’s presidency “divisive” before they point out that most poll respondents seem to find Biden even more divisive.
The truth is that Biden has been an extremely divisive president holding little back in terms of criticizing his opponents as “racist” for not supporting some of his policies. His knee-jerk temper gets him in trouble when he’s allowed to take questions from the press. He seems irritated that anyone would ask or hold him accountable for anything, a typical politician avoiding responsibility but taking credit for things he didn’t do. That’s the result of a four-decade career in Washington.
Let’s wait and see how these poll numbers suffer after news that the Hunter Biden laptop, containing evidence of the Biden family corruption, is authentic and the source of criminal investigations into the President’s son.
Democrats thought they could count on Joe Biden to turn things around. In reality, he’s going to continue making their political situation worse.
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