OPINION:
President Biden’s polls are in the dumper, big time.
They’re not just bad, they’re shockingly terrible, horrible, no good, very, very bad.
Over the last month, four major pollsters — Pew Research, Gallup, NBC News and Harvard/CAPS — took nationwide surveys. What they found was alarmingly awful.
In each poll, at least 53% of the country “disapproved” of the job Mr. Biden’s doing. Remember, former President Donald Trump got just 46.8% of the vote in the 2020 presidential election, so Mr. Biden is now losing the support of Americans who actually voted for him.
That didn’t get past the pollsters at Pew. “Biden’s standing has further slipped among members of his own party after declining in September. About three-quarters of adults who identify as Democrats (76%) say they approve of Biden’s performance — down 7 percentage points from the fall.”
Those surveyed were asked: “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president?” and in the Pew poll overall, just 41% said they approve — down 18 points since last April.
Mr. Biden’s also losing younger people in a major way: He draws a 63% disapproval rating from people between the ages of 19-29. Losing faith.
“Joe Biden began his presidency with positive job ratings and broad public confidence in his ability to deal with a number of major challenges — particularly the public health impact of the coronavirus,” Pew said. “He starts his second year with diminished job approval and majorities expressing little or no confidence in him on many of these same issues, the coronavirus included.”
The NBC News poll showed that more than 51% of the country doesn’t approve of Mr. Biden’s job as president. “According to its latest bipartisan poll, conducted Jan. 14-18, Mr. Biden’s job approval rating stood at 43% approve and 54% disapprove. A stunning 72% of respondents believed the country is on the wrong track, while 22% said it’s headed in the right direction,” Roll Call noted.
Ouch.
NBC drew a brutal response on one question. “Compared to what you expected when Joe Biden took office, do you feel that he has done better than expected, worse than you expected, or just about as you expected?”
Worse than expected: Just 5% said better, and 36% said worse. NBC noted that it’s “the weakest number recorded on this question in NBC history.”
“On every measure tested pre-inaugural, President Biden has slipped by double digits,” the liberal network said.
“Uniting the country” — down 16%.
“Being easygoing and likable” — down 15%.
“Having the ability to handle a crisis” — down 15%
“Being knowledgeable and experienced” — down 11%.
“Being a good commander in chief” — down 11%.
The Harvard CAPS/Harris poll also showed Biden’s approval rating plunging.
“Biden’s approval rating fell to 39% in the poll, which was released exclusively to The Hill. Of that, 18% of registered voters said they strongly approve of the job he’s doing, while 21% say they somewhat approve. Meanwhile, 53% said they somewhat or strongly disapprove of his job performance,” the pollsters wrote.
“That number is six points down from his approval rating in November, when he was at 45%, while his disapproval rating ticked up from 51% two months ago. His 39% approval rating is the lowest since the poll first started gauging it in March,” the pollsters said.
And pollster Mark Penn said: “This is a new low for President Biden as he struggles to solve a myriad of issues from the pandemic and the economy to immigration and crime that trouble the public. These numbers should prompt a long-overdue pivot from the White House, but so far, the Biden administration has doubled down on its direction.”
Gallup’s survey was no better. Their poll found 56% of those surveyed don’t approve of Biden’s job performance. That number is up a whopping 20% from 36% last January when Biden moved into the White House.”
Last month, Mr. Biden was asked, “Did you overpromise to the American public what you could achieve in your first year in office? And how do you plan to course-correct going forward?”
Mr. Biden replied, “Look, I didn’t over-promise, but I have probably outperformed what anybody thought would happen.”
Yeah, no.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @josephcurl.
