Friday, May 28, 2021

Michael Barone: Some Rotten Underpinnings of Biden's Positive Rating

 On the surface, Joe Biden seems to be doing pretty well. But underneath, there are signs of problems, areas where partisan overstretch threatens the underpinnings of what some are hailing as the new order of things.

    Joe Biden enjoys a 54% average job approval rating, a good mark for a president midterm or facing reelection but below the 100-day numbers of every post-World War II president except Donald Trump. Biden's 42% disapproval is higher than theirs and about equal to Trump's. That may understate things if, as The Cook Political Report's Amy Walter suggests, polls are undersampling Republican voters. 

    The deepening partisan divisions of the last quarter century are not over and done with. 

    Biden's appeal to white non-college voters apparently remains limited. Thus the retirement of downstate Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, head of House Democrats' campaign committee for the (disappointing) 2020 cycle. Her district voted 58% for Barack Obama in 2012 and voted 50% to 48% for Trump last year; she won by a margin of only 52% to 48%.

    Similarly, Rep. Tim Ryan is leaving his Youngstown-Akron district for an iffy U.S. Senate run in Ohio, and suburban Pittsburgh's Conor Lamb may do so in Pennsylvania. He hasn't been helped by local Democratic environmental regulators whose decisions caused U.S. Steel to cancel a $1.5 billion investment. 

    Nor are Biden Democrats doing all that well among the upscale voters repelled by Trump. The May 1 special election in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex resulted in the nomination of two Republicans in a district that Trump carried by only a margin of 51% to 47% last year. Republican candidates won 62% of the votes and Democrats only 37%.

    This may reflect liberal apathy. The audience for Joe Biden's April 28 speech was about 30% smaller than Trump's audience for his 2020 State of the Union. Viewership of pro-Biden MSNBC and CNN is down by even larger percentages. And the never-Trump constituency seems to be fading as well. 

    Now that Trump is out of office and off Twitter, Trump haters are no longer watching to savor his latest outrage and schmooze over it with like-minded friends.

    Meanwhile, upscale voters don't seem enchanted with the woke Biden agenda when they see it up close. Across the metroplex, turnout was high as voters in affluent Southlake, Texas, voted 70% to 30% to oust school board members who mandated critical race theory instruction, which the Biden Education Department wants to encourage.

    Their reactions were apparently similar to those of New York elite school parents, as reported by the Manhattan Institute's Kay Hymowitz. So much for "systemic racism."

    Even in hyperliberal Austin, 57% of voters reinstated a law banning camping in public spaces. The desire to "keep Austin weird" evidently doesn't go so far as endorsing California-style tent cities under every overpass.  Biden's connection with homeless policy may be tenuous; not so with what's happening on our southern border. Despite administration insistence that there's no problem, even Biden himself has described it as a "crisis."

    His insistence in his televised April 29 speech that it was under control didn't impress Democrats with border constituencies. "What I didn't hear tonight was a plan to address the immediate crisis at the border," said Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.  

    Though Biden might "say that we have everything under control," said Laredo-based Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, "we're not paying attention to the border's communities. And it's not under control. I can tell you that." He's right: One hundred and seventy thousand people were apprehended at the southern border in March, the highest monthly total since 2006. 

    Perhaps that's the reason for the retirements of border Democratic Reps. Filemon Vela of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and Ann Kirkpatrick, who represents Tucson and Cochise County, Arizona. 

    There's no question that most voters -- other than hardcore Democrats -- reject the administration spin, like Kamala Harris' pathetic claim that "lack of climate adaptation and climate resilience" are causes of the surge of migrants at the border. A CNN poll shows 78% agreeing that the border is in "crisis," while an NBC poll shows 59% disapproval to 35% approval of Biden's performance on border security and immigration. 

    The Biden-Harris claim that nothing is amiss at the border bespeaks an inability to understand what is absurd -- which can be fatal in politics. It's also apparent in the claim of there being "systemic racism" among police, which reached absurd lengths when Democratic partisans criticized police for shooting one black girl who was about to stab another. 

    As homicides increase in city after city at the highest rates ever measured, and as tens of thousands keep crossing the border illegally, a lukewarm overall-positive rating and a de-energized core constituency may not be enough for Democrats to hold on to their current tenuous majorities.

    Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and longtime co-author of The Almanac of American Politics.

COPYRIGHT 2021 CREATORS.COM

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can smell the rottenness from here-

Anonymous said...

Stopped reading after the first sentence. Joe Biden is Satans dumbest minion. We are so close to oblivion and sadly our only saviors are the media. If you follow my meaning.

Anonymous said...

Without a viable third or fourth political party both the Democrats and Republicans are hog-tied to the most extreme elements of their parties, the far left or the far right. As long as both parties must cater to them, middle America, the largest but least vocal group, will be dissatisfied with the party in power. The best we can hope for is gridlock.

Anonymous said...

Barone is a dinosaur, trying to apply 40 year old paradigms of political commentary to a dumber, more partisan world.

I can quote you chapter and verse of the conservative Twitter accounts and blogs where he found every single tired anecdote he trots out.

To be clear, I'm not saying he's wrong that Biden's popularity is precarious, but so what? In a world where blind partisanship makes policy a punchline and approval ratings max out at 55 and bottom out at 45, whose future isn't precarious?

Anonymous said...

Just read he's up to a 6 Trillion dollar plan. "Biden proposes $6T budget that will keep deficits near record highs. The proposal will push debt levels held by the public to the highest levels since World War II by 2024:.

There is absolutely no way this can be paid down just taxing the so called 1%ers. I see everyone's taxes going up for our white version of the Holy Father O.

Anonymous said...

I still laugh at the fact the media ignores Biden's personal history
history of racism.

What was that soundbite from the early/mid 2000s when Obama was starting to become a national figure ?

Biden said something to the effect:

"I've met this young black man, he's smart, articulate and clean".



Anonymous said...

Oh Jesus

You post national crap about Biden

But nothing about the trump people who stormed congress

You are a lurid toad

Anonymous said...

3:03 Please don't call Jesus into the discussion of Trump and Biden. Please.

The point is that the media will never let you forget Trump's miscues even if it was his "supporters". They will not even mention Biden's stupid past even when it is still happening. Neither man is a pillar of virtue but one is clearly '"the man of a thousand faces". That's the point.

Anonymous said...

Just a reminder to the mouth breathers, smoothbrains, and other so called “conservatives”

We don’t have to, and wont ever, pay off the national debt. The plan is to have us service the interest in perpetuity.

Our debt based economy depends on this broken system. You “conservatives” are good hearted, but brainwashed tools.

Pick up a copy of “The History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of the Human Race”

Or just watch the 1995 documentary “The Money Masters” that is somehow still up on YouTube

Anonymous said...

Everyone here should pray for Biden’s health. Kamala is warming up in the bullpen and I’m terrified.

Jeff Rimes said...

2:44, can you please post your qualifications so we can know how much weight to place on your criticisms of Barone?

That'sMisterDeplorableToYou said...

@1:42 That's just Jackson's sewage overflow into the Pearl. See the preceding post.

Anonymous said...

3:03 SPOT ON!!!!!! I couldn’t agree more!!

Kingfish said...

I made a decision to pick up some nationally syndicated columnists. I've been trying for some time but found a syndicate that would deal with blogs.

If they pen something that is anti-Trump, well, its part of their columns and it will be posted just as similar columns by Crawford and Salter were posted.

Now, I will probably post over the weekend the Biden Admin's attempt to double tariffs on Canadian lumber but that is something that has a direct local effect.

Anonymous said...

Another great column from Barone. Keep them coming.

Anonymous said...

Lurid Toad here: At least Trump didn't fund raise for the bail money for arsonist rioters like Kamala Harris did.

Anonymous said...

2:37

The “we need multiple parties” noise isn’t the answer. We could have 15 different parties and at the end of the day 2 parties would still be the most powerful. It’s a tired talking point considering how politically inactive the average American is.

Anonymous said...

You guys can dream with Barrone and team Trump at the WE, Newsmax, OANN and Fox. As for the 54/40% approval disapproval ratings for Biden according to 538 he’s lock to win again.

Anonymous said...

Lurid Toad Biden and Harris didn’t provoke an attempted overthrow of the government. As the more than 400 people are processed thru the courts and their cases are published in the media more people will be disenchanted with GQP.

Anonymous said...

8:25, thank you for your loyalty to Antifa.


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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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