OPINION:
All of the bad news — soaring crime and inflation, a badly botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, the endless crisis at the border, gridlock on Capitol Hill — has finally caught up with President Joe Biden.
New polls show Mr. Biden’s approval rating plunging to record lows and the Republican Party soaring up in the eyes of Americans, who think the GOP is better able to handle the country’s problems.
Mr. Biden’s approval is now 15 points underwater, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week.
“Battered on trust, doubted on leadership, and challenged on overall competency, President Biden is being hammered on all sides as his approval rating continues its downward slide to a number not seen since the tough scrutiny of the Trump administration,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement.
Mr. Biden’s approval rating plummeted to just 38% approval, with 53% disapproval — the worst score he’s received since taking office in January.
Meanwhile, a key inflation measure reached its highest level since 1991.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis said last week the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, used by the Federal Reserve to set its inflation rate targets, has risen for the past several months. The metric hit a 3.6% year-over-year growth rate in April before rising to 4.0% in June and 4.2% in July.
The floundering president is performing so badly that Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe even admitted Tuesday that his unpopularity is creating “headwinds” for Democrats.
“We got to get Democrats out to vote. We are facing a lot of headwinds from Washington,” Mr. McAuliffe told supporters. “As you know, the president is unpopular today, unfortunately, here in Virginia, so we have got to plow through.”
Other Democrats are starting to distance themselves from Mr. Biden.
“I will be very honest with you and tell you I am a little bit disappointed. I know that the president assigned responsibility for the border crisis to the Vice President,” Rep. Susan Wild, Pennsylvania Democrat. “I’m a little bit disappointed I haven’t seen much in the way of results.”
All the bad news has prompted Americans to now view the Republican Party as more competent.
“Americans by significant margins now view the Republican Party as better than the Democratic Party at protecting the nation from international threats (54% to 39%, respectively) and at ensuring the nation remains prosperous (50% to 41%),” Gallup reported in a new poll.
“The 15-percentage-point GOP advantage on security matters is its largest since 2015, while its nine-point edge on prosperity is its largest since 2014. Last year, the GOP had a narrow advantage on international matters while the parties were essentially tied on economic matters. More of this change has come from declines in Americans perceiving the Democratic Party as better on these issues than from increases for the Republican Party,” said the national polling site.
A year ago, 46% of those surveyed said the Democratic Party would do a better job in the next few years of protecting the U.S. from terrorism and other international threats, but that dropped 7 points to 39%.
“Americans typically see the Republican Party as more capable on national security matters, but the 15-point gap in favor of the GOP this year is the largest since a 16-point advantage in 2015. The party had an even larger 23-point gap in 2014, a time when the Obama administration was struggling to deal with the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and renewed Middle East violence, among other issues,” Gallup wrote.
But pathological liar Brian Williams of MSNBC has a fabulous theory on why Mr. Biden is plunging in the polls. On a show last week, the valor thief’s reason was due to “really crappy reporting” by the news media.
“How much should Biden, then the people around him, be worried about these polling numbers?” Mr. Williams asked. “How much of it is the result of really crappy reporting by mainstream news media using kind of false equivalence standards that stopped in 1978, and is as if Donald Trump was never president.”
So once again, it’s Donald Trump’s fault. That might be a nice talking point — and it’s one Democrats have been using ever since Mr. Biden moved into the White House — but it won’t change what’s coming next November.
The GOP must be absolutely salivating for Election Day 2022. As well they should.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times. He can be reached at jcurl@washingtontimes.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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