We started the week off by covering more terrible polling for President Biden -- and we can't stop, won't stop writing about it as long as the trend continues. We'll get to the putrid numbers from Pew in a moment, but we shouldn't breeze past the latest Harvard-Harris results, which show Biden's overall approval at a dreadful 39 percent. Perhaps worse still, his opposition is much more intense than his support, with just 18 percent of voters strongly approving of his performance, whereas fully 40 percent strongly disapprove. This is the stuff waves are made of. And so is this:
Fifty-six percent of suburban voters in the poll said they believe former President Trump was a better president than President Biden, while 44 percent said they believed Biden was the better president. Among surveyed voters who were labeled “Independent or other,” 55 percent said they believed Trump was the better president and 45 percent said they believed Biden was the better president. Meanwhile, 57 percent of suburban respondents said they are more likely to vote for a Republican candidate in the midterms, while 43 percent said they would be more likely to vote for a Democratic candidate. The poll found the same results among voters labeled “Independent or other.” The latest findings mark a major shift for both parties heading into the midterms. During the Trump administration, suburban voters swung toward Democrats, giving the party control of the House in 2018 and the Senate and the presidency in 2020.
My goodness. If Republicans can maintain their dominance in rural America, hang on to their gains among voters of color, and reassert themselves in the suburbs (a la Glenn Youngkin), November could be extremely painful for the Democrats. Maybe not quite this painful, but weird things happen in wave years:
I hope the GOP recruits real candidates against Blumenthal, Murray, Wyden, Duckworth... Nothing is out of reach in this year's environment.
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 25, 2022
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I would probably bet on all four of those incumbents to win again, and probably easily. And there's a long way to go between now and November. Things change, fortunes shift, etc. But again, wave years sometimes produce wild results (think of the truck driver knocking off the New Jersey Senate leader a few months ago), and it's bad out there for the leader of the Democratic Party. I mean, really bad:
Collapse. pic.twitter.com/4WfvXiR9K3
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 26, 2022
His trajectories are terrible, and he's seen erosion from his base. That's how the bottom really falls out. Biden could turn things around, but how dramatic would a comeback need to be? Very. His "best" numbers in this survey are on COVID and the economy, and he's (-11) on both of those, and he's even worse (-15) overall. He's deeper underwater on everything else -- from crime, to immigration, to handling China. And coming in dead last at (-39!) is confidence in his ability to bring the country together. Go figure that the guy who just got finished smearing his opponents as domestic enemies and heirs of the confederacy and segregation is sucking wind on the unity front. What makes that outcome so damning is that his unity pitch to voters was crucial to his campaign. He called bringing people together and lowering the temperature central to his mandate from voters. And here we are. Total failure. How are Democrats reacting to all of this? By heading for the exits:
Jim Cooper becomes the 29th House Democratic retirement.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 25, 2022
Cooper has served in the House for a long time. 83-95. then 03 to now
His district became way more Republican in redistricting. https://t.co/S3AZMvxDGo
By sniping at their leadership:
Dems mad at Schumer — via Politico pic.twitter.com/eX38pZe80V
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 25, 2022
And by trying to delegitimize the next election. It's a full-blown Democratic 'preemptive big lie' talking point:
You now have 2 of the top Democrats in the House echoing President Biden's comments that the election won't be legitimate if we don't pass their bill to end voter ID.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) January 25, 2022
This is incredibly dangerous for our Democracy. https://t.co/7XNeboXpPU
No wonder Biden is so frustrated and lashing out -- and...quasi-apologizing?
I asked @pdoocy if he understood President Biden’s phone call to be an apology for the “stupid SOB” comment.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 26, 2022
Doocy: “You…could say that?”
Was the word “sorry” used?
Doocy: “It was not. But that’s OK.”https://t.co/wjyEHMdwyP
And with reports emerging that the White House is terrified by the prospect of Biden contracting COVID, I'll leave you with the latest gem from his second-in-command, who is the least popular major political figure in the country:
This is roughly 70% of the population. https://t.co/IxQEQCp8tE
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) January 25, 2022
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