Joe Biden has been unpopular with many in America for a long time.
A career politician, he became Barack Obama’s vice president and dabbled in his son’s business dealings in Burisma and took him on an Air Force Two flight to China where a massive business deal erupted.
He avoided some $500,000 in payroll taxes by directing his book and speech income into an S corporation when he left office.
In office, he’s attacked religious rights, promoted abortion, let fail the nation’s southern border security, allowed a terror takeover of Afghanistan, watched as inflation hit consumers and announced his plans to spend trillions of dollars – and raise takes on Americans to cover that.
Republicans have campaigned on his unpopularity. Independents have wondered.
Polls have confirmed it.
One recent survey found out only 43% of the respondents believe Joe Biden is mentally sharp, prompting a news media outlet to headline its report: “Majority now believe that Joe Biden is kind of an idiot: Poll.”
Now even prominent Democrats are admitting he’s no help.
Paul Bedard in his Washington Secrets column at the Examiner, explained that former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe once was on a “seemingly easy” path to return to the state’s top elected office.
But that now “has gone off the rails with President Joe Biden’s sinking popularity, forcing the Democrat to scramble to get voters out.”
While McAuliffe just a week ago expressed the desire to “campaign every day beside Biden,” the report said, now it’s different.
“In a Zoom conference distributed by the Republican National Committee’s research squad, McAuliffe admitted he faces ‘headwinds’ due to Biden’s fall,” the Examiner reported.
He said what he needs now is to “get Democrats out to vote.”
“We are facing a lot of headwinds from Washington, as you know. The president is unpopular today, unfortunately, in Virginia, so we have got to plow through,” he said.
Terry McAuliffe: Joe Biden “is unpopular today unfortunately here in Virginia.” pic.twitter.com/QOMAWRBi2A
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 5, 2021
Virginia election expert Larry Sabato noted, “It’s obvious from history that a president’s popularity — or lack of it — is a factor in off-year elections. Biden’s drop in the polls couldn’t have been more poorly timed from McAuliffe’s perspective. Add to that the Democrats’ Keystone Kops performance in Congress,” he said.
He said Democrats will need to “get their act together before November 2nd” and if they do, and Biden’s ratings tick up, then McAuliffe may get some help.
Otherwise, “McAuliffe will have to try to win the race by himself.”
He’s opposed by Glenn Youngkin, the Republican nominee who has promised to put families first if elected.
The recent poll revealing Biden’s plunge in popularity was from Pew Research.
“While majorities say he stands up for what he believes in (60%) and cares about the needs of ordinary people (54%), larger shares described Biden in these terms six months ago (66% and 62%, respectively,” the poll analysis noted.
Further, and significantly, it continued, “Biden receives his least positive assessments for being mentally sharp. Currently, 43% say this describes Biden very or fairly well, an 11-point decline since March.”
In fact, 56% of the respondents said that describes him not well, including 35% who say “not at all well.”
It was Becket Adams at the Washington Examiner who headlined a commentary with the Biden “idiot” reference.
“President Joe Biden’s presidency is not going as smoothly as he probably hoped it would,” the commentary explained. “On top of the border crisis, cratering approval numbers, infighting among congressional Democrats, incompetent federal health officials bumbling their way through the coronavirus pandemic, and the chaotic, disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan, there’s also a growing consensus the president is not the sharpest knife in the drawer,” the commentary explained, citing Pew’s results.
“As if the steep decline in public opinion of the president’s smarts was not embarrassing enough, it turns out Biden’s mental acuity specifically is where Pew found the sharpest drop in all of his polled personal characteristics.”
And, the poll noted, “Positive evaluations of several of Biden’s personal traits and characteristics have shown similar decreases. Compared with March, fewer adults say Biden cares about people like them, and fewer describe him as standing up for his beliefs, honest, a good role model and mentally sharp.”
The commentary explained, “Put more simply, the longer the president is in office, the dumber people think he is. And it’s likely not because of any single issue. The White House is the major leagues, as a former vice president, of all people, ought to know. His every move and action is now under scrutiny. He has to think on his feet and respond in real-time to real-life crises. The public can see now how Biden comports himself as the commander in chief. It’s not just a theoretical game anymore. He can’t just promise to do better than the last guy. He is actually expected to deliver and to deliver competently and efficiently. So far, the public apparently isn’t impressed.”
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