The ‘meh’ presidency: Biden slips again
Byron York
THE ‘MEH’ PRESIDENCY: BIDEN SLIPS AGAIN. Here’s a lesson from the polls in the last 16 months. When President Joe Biden is unpopular, when things are going badly, his job approval rating falls to about 36%. When he is doing better, when things are going well, his job approval rises to about 44%.
That’s not a very wide range. Biden has not had majority approval in the RealClearPolitics average of polls since Aug. 14, 2021. He’s been settled in the 36-44% range, with a majority of voters disapproving of his job performance, for more than a year. Even on his best days, Biden’s is a “meh” presidency.
Recently, the conventional wisdom has been far different — that Biden has been on a roll. Although his party lost control of the House in last November’s midterm elections, in general Democrats did better than expected in the elections, even picking up a seat in the Senate. Then, the thinking goes, Biden looked good by comparison when some House Republicans turned the election of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) into a chaotic, multiballot mess.
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Some media commentators were eager to declare Biden a success. “Biden begins 2023 with a stronger hand to play,” declared Politico. “Biden and his team feeling vindicated,” declared CNN. “Whisper it, but Joe Biden had a brilliant year,” declared Newsweek. Of course, it should be said that some outlets have always been ready to declare Biden a success. Back in August, the New York Times declared, “Biden is on a roll that any president would relish.” That was before he lost control of the House and any hope for a legislative agenda in the second half of his term.
In any event, on the strength of his midterm performance and Republican missteps, Biden’s job approval rating recently soared to…44%. A couple of polls had him at 47%. One had him at 50%, but several others had him in the low 40s. In other words — not much different for this president, on a roll or not.
Now, a new Quinnipiac poll provides a measure of Biden’s standing in the wake of the classified documents scandal. The news is not good. Biden’s job approval rating is 38% in the new survey, with 53% disapproval. A full 45% said they strongly disapprove of Biden’s performance, versus only 20% who said they strongly approve of the job he is doing.
Biden’s approval ratings on various issues are uniformly bad. Just 36% approve of his handling of the economy, 38% approve of his handling of foreign policy, and 46% approve of his handling of the war in Ukraine. On the crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border, an appalling 17% approve of the job he is doing, versus 70% who disapprove. Seventy percent disapproval! That’s quite an accomplishment.
It is no surprise that people still say the economy is the “most urgent issue facing the country today.” Thirty-five percent named it their top concern. After that came gun violence and crime; a combined 14% named them. Then immigration, at 11%. Climate change came in at 8%. Russia’s war in Ukraine was named by just 3%, and COVID came in at exactly 1%.
On the documents matter, Quinnipiac asked: “Do you think President Biden acted appropriately or inappropriately in the way he handled classified documents after leaving the White House as vice president?” Sixty-two percent said Biden acted inappropriately, versus just 21% who said he acted appropriately. That’s nearly a 3-to-1 margin of people who do not believe Biden acted appropriately, which does not bode well for his future attempts to get past the scandal.
Is the Quinnipiac survey evidence that Biden will sink back to the high 30s — the position that seems to be his default when things aren’t going well? That is unclear. We don’t know what will happen in the documents case. But the president’s apparent fade, after a period when events were going his way, suggests that the 36-to-44 range is his natural home. Americans don’t hate him. But they don’t love him, either. They don’t feel that strongly about him, unless they strongly disapprove of him. It’s kind of a “meh” presidency.
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