Has Biden become old news?
President Biden ㅡ and his administration ㅡ have a challenging road ahead as they try to shift the public’s mood that has largely turned sour after becoming fatigued with the rising cost of living, a two-year pandemic, and uncertainty over conflicts abroad.
Since the withdrawal from Afghanistan last August, President Biden’s ratings have steadily declined, with Democrats now facing difficult midterms this November, where it seems almost certain they will lose their majorities.
Democrats may be running out of time to turn the temper on inflation and the pandemic, for it to make much of a difference to their results in the midterm elections.
A former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security during former President George W. Bush’s administration, Stewart Verdery, said that while “ a cross-section” of people found Trump “unacceptable” from a “personality and ethics standpoint,” those same people were turning on Biden “because of day-to-day quality of life issues.”
Several polls have shown how public sentiment has shifted around Biden.
A POLITICO-Morning Consult poll revealed only 39% of Americans approve of Biden, compared to 41% who don’t.
A CNN poll released last week revealed that nearly three-quarters of respondents said they felt burned out by the pandemic 60% described themselves as angry about the pandemic, with fewer than half saying they were optimistic about Covid-19.
But Joel Tenneson, who was a polling analyst during former President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns, noted that bad polling numbers don’t always spell bad news for the White House, pointing to examples like former Presidents George W. Bush, Clinton, and Ronald Reagan, who all had polls reach below 40% before rebounding to win a second term.
But for congressional Democrats, that is cold comfort, as the most pressing matter remains maintaining their respective majorities in the House and Senate in the upcoming midterm elections, something that is looking increasingly impossible.
