This new installment comes courtesy of Quinnipiac, which finds Biden stagnating at record lows on job approval, both among American adults (33/57) and registered voters (35/58). The pollster asked respondents how much control a president has over inflation, given Team Biden's excuse-making spin that spiking prices are a phenomenon about which they are entirely powerless. It's Putin. It's the oil companies (Biden impotently instructed gas stations to simply lower costs this week, calling it "simple"). It's the Republicans. It's the pandemic. And on and on they go. Not going to work, the Q-poll finds -- via Ed Morrissey:
Quinnipiac asks respondents to rate how much control a president has over inflation, and the news there is bad for the Putin’s Price Hike White House. Sixty-nine percent of all adults think a president has some or a lot of control over inflation, while only 31% think a president has a little or none at all. Among women, it’s 72/27, and among Hispanics it’s 71/29, two demographics on which Democrats have long counted for electoral support.
It's true that some factors are beyond any president or administration's control. But even Democratic economists have acknowledged that Biden and Congressional Democrats made this problem worse with their insane, inflationary, wasteful spending spree, ignoring warnings. They came within a whisker of making things much worse with an additional $5 trillion 'Build Back Better,' passed out of the House with the support of every single Democrat in the chamber, except for one. Two Democratic Senators held the line, despite intense lobbying from the activist news media, and harassment from left-wing agitators. Add it all up, and it's no surprise that Quinnipiac finds POTUS 30 points underwater on his handling of the economy. It's bad out there, worse than it's been a long, long time:
President Joe Biden and the Democrats are facing the most difficult midterm elections in 48 years, according to new polling from Gallup that shows Americans' dissatisfaction with the state of the U.S. Gallup found that the mood of the nation is the worst it has been in any midterm election year since 1974—the year that Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency following the Watergate scandal and investigations. According to the new survey, just 13 percent of Americans were satisfied with the direction the U.S. is going and just 16 percent approve of the job Congress is doing. About 87 percent of Americans are now dissatisfied with the direction of the country and 82 percent disapprove of Congress. Biden's job approval stood at 41 percent in June and was unchanged since May. Disapproval of the president now stands at 57 percent...
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However. The notion that Republicans are just going to waltz to sweeping victories is challenged by a new, high-quality poll out of Pennsylvania released this week. Check out Biden's numbers, the 'generic' ballot, then the statewide head-to-heads:
FabrizioWard (R)/Impact (D) poll of PENNSYLVANIA:
— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) June 22, 2022
SEN
Fetterman (D) 50
Oz (R) 44
GOV
Shaprio (D) 49
Mastriano (R) 46
Biden approval 36/61
Generic R 47-D 45
Favs:
Shapiro 47/34
Fetterman 46/36
Mastriano 37/44
Oz 30/63
(500 LVs, 6/12-19, MoE 4.4)https://t.co/UIiDPiyt4j
Biden is in the toilet, with more than six-in-ten Keystone State voters disapproving of his performance as president. Republicans are leading on the 'generic ballot.' And yet...the Democrats are ahead three points in the gubernatorial race, and six points in the Senate race. Dr. Oz, the GOP Senate nominee, has worse favorability than Biden has job approval. Candidates matter. Democrats may be toxic nationally, and even in the states, but if voters decide they can't stomach the people Republicans nominate in major races, crucial seats become blowable, even in the most favorable environment in recent memory. Republican primary voters in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, New Hampshire, and elsewhere should take note. That being said, these (and other) races are by no means over. The national climate could very well catch up to over-performing Democrats. Such a sequence would not be unusual:
Saw the exact same story play out in 2014 and 2018.
— Sean T at RCP (@SeanTrende) June 23, 2022
The Democrats are going to work hard to keep Oz's numbers flat-lining, but Republicans are also going to start to move past bitter post-primary feelings and focus on who the other party has put on the ballot. Voters will hear a lot about this, I suspect:
Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, the Democratic Senate candidate facing Republican Mehmet Oz, has a history of using his office to recommend the governor pardon convicted murderers and has backed the idea of reducing the state’s prison population [en] mass, records show. Fetterman, who has been Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor since 2019, has been characterized by Republicans as a “socialist” aligned with fringe left-wing members of Congress, like Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. While in power, Fetterman seemingly endorsed policies favoring the mass release of prison inmates and said he is “trying to get as many folks out as we can.”
There are reasons to believe Pennsylvania will tighten and end up very close, as it so often is. Nationally, there is also the issue of turnout and enthusiasm, not just in polling, but also in reality:
CNN’s Harry Enten: Republican primary turnout is up by 29% compared to 2018 — while Democrat turnout is down.
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 23, 2022
"Whenever you see a rise like that, you know something's cooking." pic.twitter.com/4yFvPpI4jG
And the electoral climate could also grow worse for the party in power -- this year, and/or during the march toward 2024:
POWELL: "What we're looking for is compelling evidence that inflation is coming down, and we don't have that." pic.twitter.com/Tdvs98DOON
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 22, 2022
“A recession is inevitable within the next 12 to 18 months,” writes former New York Fed president Bill Dudley. https://t.co/7pRLcKb6f2
— Dagen McDowell (@dagenmcdowell) June 22, 2022
The journos are already pre-spinning:
Did a recession write this headline? pic.twitter.com/BvX34IU0Ns
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) June 22, 2022
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