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Biden’s Numbers Fall to Historic New Lows, Showing No Signs of a Ukraine Bump

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President Biden has reached a new low in his historically bad poll numbers, despite the initial appearances that the ongoing war in Ukraine would help him in the polls. According to the latest NBC News polls, 55% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s performance as president, while only 40% of respondents think Biden is doing a good job.  The numbers are the worst for Biden since NBC started to poll the President’s popularity, and are grave signs for Democrats’ prospects ahead of the midterms.

The intensity of people’s disappointment towards the president is also a terrible sign for the Democratic Party. According to the NBC poll, 42% of respondents say they strongly disapprove of Biden’s performance, while only 16% of them strongly approve of the President’s job. Such figures present a mountain for Democrats to climb before November 2022, as it indicates that the GOP might have a more motivated base than the Democrats.

The NBC News poll is not an outlier either. The FiveThirtyEight poll aggregator also has Biden in a very tough position, as 52.8% of Americans disapprove of him while only 42.1% approve, a more than 10-point gap. The President’s numbers are almost as bad as Trump’s during the same time of his presidency, and it’s six points lower than Obama’s at the same point of his first term.

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Americans don’t think Biden is doing a good job over the Russian-Ukrainian war (EFE)

Voters are concerned about the economy and Ukraine. Biden’s numbers in both are terrible

The NBC poll shows that the voters’ top concerns revolve around the economy and the ongoing war in Ukraine, and they do not think the President is doing a good job on either of those issues. More than two-thirds of respondents said that either the cost of living or the economy/jobs were among the top-two issues America faces right now, while 28% said that the Russian-Ukrainian war was the most important issue the country is facing.

Whether it is the economy or the state of the world, voters disapprove of Biden’s work on both issues. According to the survey, 52% of Americans disapprove of the way Biden has handled the Russian-Ukrainian war, while only 41% approve. Similarly, Americans are very skeptical of the President’s capacity to handle the Russian-Ukrainian war, as 44% said they have very little confidence in Biden’s ability to handle the conflict, while only 12% said they had a great deal of confidence in the president.

Most daunting for the White House, however, is that more than two-thirds (63%) of Americans disapprove of how Biden is handling the economy. Inflation, which has reached record-high levels in the United States, is mostly blamed on Biden and his policies as 38% of respondents believe that, although decent numbers of voters also believe that COVID-19 and corporations are the ones to blame for the recent price hikes, 28%, and 23% respectively.

Inflación, El American
Americans are most concerned over inflation and the economy (Image: Flickr)

Republicans have a narrow lead above Democrats ahead of the midterms

The abysmal popularity numbers for the president appear to also be having grave consequences for his party down the ballot.  According to the poll, 46% of Americans think that they prefer to have a Republican-dominated congress, while 44% prefer to have a Democrat-dominated one. This is a 3-point drop for Democrats since the last poll NBC conducted in January.

Although this advantage is a very slim one, it is a good position for Republicans when compared to the position they were in in 2010 when they took the House in a landslide or in 2014 when they won the Senate. Back in 2010, Democrats held a 3-point advantage over the GOP in the generic congressional ballot, however, they ended up losing more than 60 seats in that election cycle.

Despite the rather narrow advantage the GOP has over Democrats, they are in a better position in the issue of party image, as more Americans have a bad view of the Democrats than of the Republicans. According to the poll, 47% of Americans have either a negative or very negative image of the Democratic party, while only 40% of respondents said the same of the GOP.

Daniel is a Political Science and Economics student from the University of South Florida. He worked as a congressional intern to Rep. Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) from January to May 2020. He also is the head of international analysis at Politiks // Daniel es un estudiante de Cs Políticas y Economía en la Universidad del Sur de la Florida. Trabajo como pasante legislativo para el Representate Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) desde enero hasta mayo del 2020. Daniel también es el jefe de análisis internacional de Politiks.

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