Poll: The political state of Biden presidency remains lackluster
By: Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Ben Kamisar, Bridget Bowman and Alexandra Marquez (NBC News)
So, the public sees Biden as likeable but incompetent. The polling numbers kinda summarizes Biden's stint as Vice President, too. History is repeating itself regardless of pundit spin.
Democrats are hoping (and praying?) that Trump will be the Republican nominee. And the press will push that narrative in spite of Trump's polling numbers being lower than Biden's. Right now it appears that Trump is the only potential candidate that Biden can compete against. But for that matchup to happen, Biden and Democrats are going to have to either improve Trump's standing with Republican voters or play dirty tricks during the primaries.
Don't be surprised if we are forced to endure more Trump news. Too bad House Republicans are planning to investigate Biden instead of a rigged election. The 'rigged election' narrative didn't rally Republicans during the midterms. And the 'insurrection' narrative won't improve Trump's polling among Republicans. Right now the failure to indict Trump says more about Democrats' competence than anything else. That reinforces the public's concerns about Biden's competence, too. So, Biden is hurting the Democratic Party and the Democratic Party is hurting Biden.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The state of the Biden presidency is … not as strong as the 2022 midterm results suggested.
That's the clear conclusion from our latest NBC News poll — as we head into next week's State of the Union address, as the president speaks today to the DNC, and as the 2024 presidential race is just beginning.
Despite a series of legislative wins, positive economic news and those better-than-expected midterm results, Biden's overall job rating in the poll is 45% among all adults and 46% among registered voters — essentially where it was in our previous survey right before the midterms.
(By comparison, Monmouth and Marist have Biden at 43%, while Pew has him at 38%.)
Just 36% of Americans approve of Biden's handling of the economy, and 41% approve of his handling of foreign policy and the war in Ukraine.
What's more, a combined 67% of voters in the NBC poll say they have reservations or are very uncomfortable about Biden running for president in 2024, versus 32% who are enthusiastic or comfortable.
(Donald Trump's numbers on this question are almost identical: 66% reservations/uncomfortable, versus 34% enthusiastic/comfortable.)
Maybe most troubling for Biden in the poll are his presidential ratings, with 50% of Americans giving him low marks for uniting the country, and with 54% giving him low marks for having the mental and physical health to be president.
Now the White House and Democrats would counter that, despite those kinds of numbers, they just had the best first-year midterm since Bush 43 in 2002, and they'd be right. (But what was the more powerful force last November — perceptions of Biden or perceptions of Trump-backed candidates?)
They'd also point out that Biden is still tailor-made to defeat Trump again in 2024, and our poll shows that Trump remains more unpopular than the current president.
And they'd argue that, despite Biden's poll weakness, he's a better option than another wide-open Democratic primary that would inevitably lead to more establishment vs. progressive fights — plus another competition to prove to Democratic voters who has the most left-of-center policies.
But the numbers are the numbers, and they signal a presidency that's not as strong as Democrats would want it to be heading into 2024.
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The 2022 midterm elections were a referendum on Trump. The country has turned the page. Democrats did fare better than expected, didn't they?
Without Trump, Biden loses bigly. So, what are Democrats going to do now?
Seems Trump and his evil horde are still here to be hated.
Yeah, the lackluster Biden presidency.
By all means stick with the Boebert chick and the 9mm handily tucked in her............