President Joe Biden, 80, got the bad news from the latest AP-NORC poll showing his approval ratings now stands a 38%, the low reading since July 2022 when the same poll registered 36%. Biden has been taking his time in announcing his reelection bid, postponing it until the Democrat National Committee gets a better sense of who he’ll face in 2024. Biden hopes battered-and-beleaguered former President Donald Trump gets his rematch but every day that goes by suggest that the GOP looks for a fresh face in 2014, leaning toward 44-year-old Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis, like Biden, is in no rush to declare his intent for 2024. When you consider the bad news today, not likely to change before 2024, the incumbent would be in trouble seeking a second term. Biden likes to tout his legislative accomplishment but runaway inflation and a war with Russia hang over the White House.
Biden’s low approval ratings reflect the fact that he was the lesser of the two evils in 2020, with voters preferring to not give former President Donald Trump four more years. Trump was the first GOP candidate declaring for 2024 Nov. 15, 2022, but gaining little traction other than leading other GOP prospects in some preliminary polls. DeSantis lags behind Trump largely because voters haven’t taken him seriously yet without formally announcing.. But in Biden’s case, the Democrat Party has a real dilemma in its hands, considering running an incumbent with historically low approval ratings. With the entire media against Trump and Covid-19 raging in 2020, voters wanted to try something different. Now faced with a runaway inflation and a costly foreign war draining the U.S. Treasury, Biden creates real problems for Democrats heading into 2024.
Democrats have been groping to find out why Biden gets such low approval ratings, when 75% of Democrats back his policies. Recent polls give a free X-Ray into the sentiments of ordinary voters on both sides of the aisle. Democrats and Republicans do not want an 82-year-old running for president, something Biden, of course, ignores. But voters have watched Biden over the last two years start a bloody proxy war with the Russian Federation. White House officials insist the war against the Kremlin is in the national security interest of the United States. Yet Democrats and Republicans alike don’t like using billions in tax dollars going to country halfway around the world. Biden has never explained how he could trash decades of diplomacy with the Kremlin to defend a bordering country without any real national security significance to the United States or the Western Alliance.
Biden’s low approval ratings mirror a weak economy that deteriorated once the White House committed the U.S. to a proxy war against the Kremlin. Once thought unthinkable, Biden has single-handedly wrecked U.S.-Russian relations for the foreseeable future. When it comes to China, things aren’t much better, after Biden promised Taiwan Sept. 23, 2022 that he’d commit U.S. troops to defend the island nation against the Chinese takeover. Biden watched yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow pledge a new era of cooperation. Biden has been pushing China to denounce the Ukraine War, especially Putin’s Feb. 24, 2022 invasion. Instead of finding ground and working with China, Biden and his national security team have pushed Beijing to the breaking point. Biden’s intolerance has pushed China into Russia’s arms.
Biden’s low approval ratings were evident as soon as he took office, largely because no one really wanted him a president. When compared with Trump Nov. 3, 2020, he looked like the innocuous choice. But as soon as he took office, Biden has made a series of unforgettable blunders, allowing his big-spending base to burn money like ka drunken sailor. Biden’s big spending liberal ways helped fuel the worst inflation in 40 years. But by far his biggest mistake was starting a proxy war with the Russian Federation, causing worldwide oil shortages, adding to the worst inflation since the days of President Jimmy Carter. Biden has refused to accept responsibility for the U.S. and global inflation that his pushed the U.S. and world into sluggish growth, leaving U.S. and global stock markets in decline. Biden continues his self-destructive battle with the Kremlin, serving no one but himself.
Biden’s abysmal approval ratings were a predictable consequence of having no personal appeal and making a series of unforgivably bad decisions. Putting a neophyte national security team in place harmed U.S. foreign policy and national security. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 60, and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan have done more damage to U.S.-China relations than any duo in U.S. history. With all their belligerent rhetoric, Blinken and Sullivan have pushed China into a possible military conflict with the U.S. Biden has certainly made things worse, violating the 1979 Taiwan Releations Act, threatening to defend Taiwan Sept. 23, 2022 with U.S. troops. Biden won’t defend Ukraine with U.S. troops, only depletes the U.S. Treasury by spending nearly $100 billion to fund the bankrupt Kiev government and war with the Kremlin.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
