This latest data set comes from pollster Anne Selzer's outfit, in partnership with Grinnell College. Seltzer is viewed as the gold standard in Iowa political polling, but she also conducts nationwide surveys. Her latest findings are grim for Democrats on several fronts. Her top line result elicits a 'yikes' from National Journal analyst Josh Kraushaar, and for good reason:
Yikes: New Ann Selzer *national* poll finds Biden approval dipping down to 34%, with 52% disapproving. https://t.co/i3MYm5SAQn
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) March 23, 2022
Barely more than a third of respondents approve of the job President Biden is doing, with a majority disapproving. He's underwater by 18 points. On issues, Biden is slightly right side-up on handling COVID, which has faded as a top concern, but is upside-down on the Ukraine crisis (-11) and sputtering on the economy (-26). By a 40-point margin, Americans in this survey say the country is on the wrong track (24/64). Buried within the numbers is this interesting question and response:
Paging @AsraNomani:
— Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) March 23, 2022
In order to expand access to college for racial minorities, do you think a university should be allowed to take a person’s race into account when deciding whether to admit that person as a student?
Should be allowed: 27%
Should not be allowed: 68%
By more than 40 percentage points, Americans believe race and skin color should not be permitted to be used as a factor in college and university admissions. As I noted on Twitter, looking at the cross-tabs, there was no gap between white and non-white respondents on this question. White respondents are against using race in the admissions process (26/69); non-whites' answers were virtually identical, at (29/68) opposition. This outcome is not isolated, either. We wrote about a Pew survey in 2019 that asked almost the exact same question. The result? "73% of Americans say colleges and universities should not consider race or ethnicity when making decisions about student admissions," versus 26 percent who said it should be considered. Super-majorities of Black and Hispanic respondents agreed with this consensus stance. Flashback:
Roughly three-quarters of Americans say universities should NOT consider the race/ethnicity of applicants in the admissions process.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 25, 2019
This colorblind consensus includes super-majorities of blacks (62%) and Hispanics (65%): pic.twitter.com/6FRy8G81Iv
For the hardcore identity-fixated Left, the use of race in college admissions isn't even on the radar as controversial. It's a given. A must. The bare minimum. Their immediate goals are much farther afield at this stage, from supporting toxic racial indoctrination in K-12 schools (and yes, it's happening), to banishing 'problematic' historical figures, including even Jefferson and Lincoln. The country is not with them. The 'affirmative action' rejection numbers above illustrate how deeply out of touch the Woke Left is on race. This anecdote playing out in limousine liberal land is notable:
Brentwood school has actually been quite candid over the last few years about becoming hyper-woke. Many of the white liberals who kept paying tuition enjoyed the woke revolution right until it came for them. Sorry, no sympathy. https://t.co/EM5M6EjkQz
— Noah Pollak (@NoahPollak) March 23, 2022
When it comes to Biden's popularity, a new Emerson poll is less terrible for the president than the Grinnell/Selzer numbers mentioned above, but among the critical demographic of political independents, the president remains in big trouble:
Spencer Kimball, Executive Director of the Emerson College Poll said, “Biden struggles among Independent voters: just 28% approve of the job he is doing while 64% disapprove. When looking at the Midterm generic congressional ballot, Independents break 28% for Democrats, 42% with Republicans, and 31% are undecided.”
And the economic and political pain might continue for quite some time. The Chairman of the Fed is predicting 'long inflation,' as Byron York frames it at the Washington Examiner:
While much of the political world focused on the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, across town in Washington on Monday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivered a speech that could reverberate through the next two election cycles. What was so politically consequential about Powell's speech? His declaration that he expects it will take three years to bring inflation, currently at 7.9% annually, its highest rate in four decades, back to a normal level. "The inflation outlook has deteriorated significantly this year, even before Russia's invasion of Ukraine," Powell told the National Association for Business Economics. "The rise in inflation has been much greater and more persistent than forecasters generally expected." Powell then recounted how the experts at the Federal Reserve consistently underestimated the increase in inflation...
Powell pledged stronger Fed actions, including bigger increases in interest rates, to bring inflation under control. But given current conditions, he admitted that inflation is going to be around for a while. "As the magnitude and persistence of the increase in inflation became increasingly clear over the second half of last year, and as the job market recovery accelerated beyond expectations, the [Fed's Federal Open Market Committee] pivoted to progressively less accommodative monetary policy," Powell said. "I believe these policy actions and those to come will help bring inflation down near 2% over the next three years." Three years. That would be until early 2025. In between, we will have the 2022 midterm elections and the 2024 presidential election. And that is the political consequence of Powell's speech. Inflation is the biggest single concern of the nation's voters at the moment. Barring some enormous, entirely unforeseen event, inflation will remain the voters' biggest single concern in November.
I'll leave you with the following statistical nugget. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that of the top ten counties experiencing population explosions, nine of them are in red states (Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Utah):
Where are the 10 counties that accounted for 80% of net growth in the US last year?
— Derek Thompson (@DKThomp) March 24, 2022
No. 1 is Phoenix.
5 of the 10 are in Texas, including 2 suburbs of Plano and 2 suburbs of Houston.
2 of the 10 are in Florida: Orlando and Cape Coral-Ft Myers.
The other is Provo, UT. pic.twitter.com/h2CcdSOh02
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