Democrats, liberal media pivot from unpopular Biden ahead of midterms as ‘reality’ sets in
By: Brian Flood,Nikolas Lanum
Probably a good move. No, DEFINITELY a good move
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
P rominent Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media are moving away from President Biden as the once-prominent narrative that he’s right for the job has increasingly faded.
Biden was beloved by the liberal media throughout his campaign and largely through the first year of his presidency. Corporate news organizations downplayed his gaffes, ignored his scandals and fawned over anything positive he was able to accomplish. But lately, as Biden’s approval rating shrinks and Democrats panic about the looming midterm election, liberals have started to turn on the unpopular president.
DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall has taken notice and feels liberal pundits and reporters have to "move on from Biden" for practical purposes, not because they think he is wrong on policy or management matters.
"The establishment media ran for a long time with the narrative that Biden was the stable and seasoned president the nation needed. That narrative broke down long ago in the minds of many Americans, including left-of-center people who voted for Biden," McCall told Fox News Digital.
"The nation's economic and international problems have been looming for some time and American citizens have known that. The media was late to the party and is just now figuring out that the narrative they've been pushing looks pretty hollow to regular Americans who perceive the frail President is not up to the challenges the nation faces," McCall continued. "The liberal media is now having to face the reality of a struggling Biden presidency, not because they think he is ineffective on policy matters, but only because they fear potential bad results in the midterm elections."
NBC News’ Chuck Todd led a panel on Sunday’s "Meet the Press" that focused on economic woes turning off younger Biden voters after a CNBC poll showed that only 35% approve of the economy.
"It’s not great," PBS’ Amna Nawaz said. "You're talking about one of the key groups that not only help Democrats win back control of Congress, propel Biden into the White House, but are also going to be in play in larger numbers than ever before in the upcoming midterms and the economy if front and center."
Todd then showed Democrats polling poorly in Nevada and admitted it’s an issue for the party at large.
"This is a problem and Nevada may be the most acute," Todd said.
GROWING NUMBER OF SENATE DEMOCRATS AND DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES BREAK WITH BIDEN OVER BORDER
Washington Post columnist Perry Bacon Jr. wrote a Tuesday piece , "Bidenism is failing. The question is how badly," which put a harsh spotlight on a dismal approval rating of 42 percent that was recently determined by FiveThirtyEight’s polling average.
"When presidents become more unpopular, the media covers them more negatively, and other politicians, particularly politicians from their own party, feel freer to criticize them — which tends to make them even more unpopular. Presidential unpopularity creates a self-reinforcing cycle," Bacon wrote. "But while it’s clear Bidenism is failing, it’s not clear exactly why."
Bacon then explained that just about every type of Democrat has a specific issue with Biden.
"More centrist Democrats argue that the president, particularly early in his term, swung too far to the left. More liberal Democrats argue that Biden is not progressive enough. Others cite the Democratic infighting this past year over Biden’s agenda, the traditional backlash against first-term presidents, COVID and, most often, inflation," he wrote.
Bacon isn’t the only columnist from a prominent liberal newspaper to point out Biden’s struggles in a scathing piece.
New York Times columnist Charles Blow penned a Monday column headlined, "A Biden Blood Bath?" Blow noted that he was "shocked" by a recent Quinnipiac University indicating Biden’s approval rating had sunk to just 33 percent.
"You might argue that this was just one poll, but Biden’s approval is down in multiple surveys," Blow pointed out. "As CNN’s Harry Enten pointed out Friday, there were four major national polls released last week, and in three of them — including Quinnipiac — Biden had the lowest showing of his presidency. In the fourth, he was ‘one point off the lowest.’"
Indeed, as Blow informed Washington Post readers, CNN’s polling guru also sounded the alarm on Biden’s troubling poll numbers.
"When you have three or four pollsters showing the lowest numbers for the President of the United States, that is indicative of a president who is in a lot of trouble, at least to where he is standing historically," Enten said last week. "This is a really, really, really bad number."
Blow went on to break down why he feels many Americans have turned on Biden, declaring that poor messaging is an issue but "the messenger" might be the larger problem for Democrats.
"I think the problem is more on ground level, a gut level: How do people feel? They feel stuck and angry, they’re tired and overwhelmed, and that energy is being directed at Biden," Blow wrote, adding that Biden is a "decent man" and many voted for him because he was the opposite of former President Trump.
"But America has changed its mind and its mood. It wants a show and a showman to distract from its misery. Biden is not that. And he is being punished for not being a huckster," Blow wrote.
Blow detailed how Biden’s presidency "has been stymied on some big promises that he made during the campaign on issues like voting rights and police reform," "has moved from the macro to the micro, taking steps that will indeed benefit many Americans but are too narrowly focused to transform our society or fix the core problems that plague it" and has seen crime and the economy go in the wrong directions.
"But all this taken together — in addition to voter suppression and racial and political gerrymandering — may prove hugely problematic for Democrats and for the administration, unless they can turn things around before Election Day. If not, we could well be looking forward to a Biden blood bath," Blow wrote.
Far-left New York Times Magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones , who is responsible for the controversial 1619 Project, declared Biden failed to do anything voters put him in office to accomplish when scolding a different reporter who called Biden’s "collapse" with young voters "kind of mysterious."
"You can’t just fail to do anything they put you in office to do and say save democracy when you won’t take basic steps to save democracy yourself," Hannah-Jones wrote.
CNN’s John Harwood, who is typically in lockstep with the Biden administration, admitted the president has been "stuck in the avalanche-warning zone for months" and faces the "likelihood of a substantial" thumping in November.
Biden pollster John Anzalone even told Politico the situation is "sour" for Democrats.
"No one’s going to sit there as a Democratic consultant and try to bulls--t you that this is anything but a really sour environment for Democrats," Anzalone said.
Meanwhile, high-profile Democrats have also voiced concerns about Biden over issues including immigration restrictions.
With just over a month to go until the Biden administration rescinds a Trump-era pandemic restriction known as Title 42, which allowed officials to rapidly expel asylum seekers that crossed U.S.-Mexico border , a growing number of Democratic Senate incumbents and candidates running in the midterm elections have expressed serious concerns over the move.
"Right now we have a crisis on our southern border," Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said last week after meeting with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials at the Douglas Port of Entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. ""Title 42 was put in place because of a public health emergency. It shouldn’t be around forever, but right now this administration does not have a plan. I warned them about this months ago."
Kelly added that administration’s reaction has so far been "unacceptable."
Two other first-term senators from key swing states that also face tough re-elections in November – Sens. Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada – have also come out against Biden's plan to lift Title 42. So have a pair of lieutenant governors who are the front-runners in Senate Democratic primaries in two battleground states – John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Mandela Barnes of Wisconsin.
Fetterman told Politico this past weekend that "we should not end Title 42 until we have a detailed plan in place." And Barnes told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week that he opposes lifting the restrictions "simply because there's not a detailed plan in place so that we can keep asylum seekers and people in the country safe."
Several other Democrats and media analysts expressed concern that the midterms could be a huge loss for the party without specifically blaming Biden.
An MSNBC columnist said Saturday that the midterms would be a "bloodbath" for Democrats but said that they should still continue to pass their agenda, Rev. Al Sharpton slammed "limousine liberals" recently for not being aware of rising crime rates in cities across America and said that they don't live in the real world and Sen. Elizabeth Warren , D-Mass., wrote in a column for the New York Times that Democrats need to pass stalled agenda items in the next few months, otherwise they are "headed toward big losses in the midterms."
Fox News’ Hanna Panreck and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
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Even though the name is in the article twice, it is for reference only............that being said
Trump and his supporters are off topic. Those who respond to themselves to avoid keyboard cooties by actually replying to the person they are quoting/mocking/refuting will have their comments removed at the moderator's discretion. Comments MUST be directed at whom you are responding Off Topic posts are subject to same.
Joe Biden? Never heard of the guy.
And the rats head for the scuppers as the ship continues to sink .....
The Democrats problems are all of their own making.
They will be punished during the midterm election for their futile attempts to blame Putin for everything
And of course, any criticism of Biden will be Russian disinformation pushed by Russian agents. We see it on NT.
Overall, the Democrat Party messaging seems to be in free-fall whether it's about Covid, the economy/inflation, education, national security, international relations, or their open-border policies especially with blacks, latinos/hispanics, and young voters. They still haven't understood that Americans are smart people who don't want government, Big Pharma, and Big Tech controlling their lives and won't be fooled by groups throwing more money at them.
Democrats appear to be more interested in messaging than governing.
To paraphrase Dana Perino. "If things are going well the messaging takes care of itself". You can only have a problem messaging when you are having trouble spinning the bullshit to make people believe what is not true.
As CNN’s Harry Enten pointed out Friday, there were four major national polls released last week, and in three of them — including Quinnipiac — Biden had the lowest showing of his presidency. In the fourth, he was ‘one point off the lowest.’"
The Afghanistan debacle exposed his Presidency and started his slide. Dismissing inflation as "transitory" month after month after month buried him.
There is no way they can save themselves by November.
I was listening to someone on the news the other day, I forget who, but the Democrat strategist was saying that while they believe the House will flip to Republican control they still have a very good chance of maintaining control of the Senate. I know we'll find out in November who's right but I have a hard time believing the Democrats will retain control of the Senate. The only question I really have there is will the Republicans gain a simple majority or will they end up with 60+ seats...
I tend to agree with that. As the election draws near, watch how moderate the democrat Senators up for election begin to sound.
It's been happening for a while now. The TV ads for Mark Kelly here in Arizona definitely show him as a moderate and proudly pushes all the "good" things he did for the people.. The spin involved here is amazing.
I saw that Kelly continues pressing Biden on border security. Last week he called for closing gaps in border fencing along the Arizona-Mexico border.
Arizona doesn't usually vote for "crazy!"
The problem is Biden was never "right for the job". Even a cursory look at his history tells us that.
IMO Joe might have been OK if he was strong enough to put the far left in a box and ignore them and kept his promise of moderation and unity.
Joe might have been OK if he resigned from public office.
Clinton did it. Out of necessity because he was forced there but he did it and deserves credit for as much. He was a better President for it.
Can you imagine if that happened today? People like AOC and some of the progressive/liberal kooks here would be asking for his head.
Undoubtably
For some on the left he was the perfect candidate. He is easily manipulated and does as he is told. They just never figured on him going off script so offend and being so stupid with his adlibs.
That is a major problem. Because he is so easy to manipulate, we are seeing more policy that only hurts the country all because some other idiot thinks its a good idea. Looking at Biden's history, he's been on the wrong side of foreign policy almost every time. And on the very few occasions he's not it's because he wasn't present. And this is who the left thinks should be dealing with other world leaders?
His off script and adlibs are another part of the problem. He gets so easily distracted or looses his train of thought so quickly that he's become an embarrassment to the country. World leaders see this as weakness and are taking full advantage of it.
He was never popular.
In his own state? Sure. But not as VP, and not as a candidate for president. He was the emergency alternative when it looked like Bernie Sanders might steal the nomination (for an almost second time). The week he declared, 4 or 5 candidates with actual support dropped out as part of a party-wide strategy to beat Bernie Sanders.
Only because he’s a Democrat.
If a Republican were president while inflation was 8.5% and gas cost 6 bucks a gallon, the media would be screaming bloody murder.
Obama and the inner circle no longer have any use for him. There remains the other problem of his equally unpopular vice president. In better times, they would find a competent candidate to replace him in 3 years, but based on the performance of over a year of one party democrat rule, it will not matter.