Why the White House Won't Be Happy About Biden's Post-SOTU Polling

Leah Barkoukis | March 14, 2024 9:30 AM

President Biden’s State of the Union address failed to give the commander in chief a bump in the polls, despite the media’s rave reviews about his “fiery” and “powerful” performance.

According to a Yahoo News/YouGov survey conducted in the days after, voters were not swayed by the speech.

Before the State of the Union, Trump (45%) and Biden (44%) were statistically tied in a head-to-head 2024 matchup, according to the previous Yahoo News/YouGov poll from late January.
They remain tied today, with Trump at 46% and Biden at 44% — a gap that’s well within the poll’s margin of error (2.8%).
Before the speech, 40% of Americans approved of the job Biden was doing as president; 56% disapproved. Today, those numbers are 39% and 55%, respectively. (Yahoo!)

Regarding concerns about Biden’s age, his “vigorous” delivery of the speech (to quote CNN) didn’t change perceptions about the commander in chief either.

Only 29 percent believe the 81-year-old is fit to serve another term, which is the same as it was in January. A majority, 51 percent, also think the president’s age is a “big problem” that affects his “fitness” on the job, also unchanged since January.

Even though he did make it through the speech, Americans' concerns about the president remain.