The third Monday in February, in this case, February 21, is a celebration of George Washington's birthday (which is on February 22), as well as all the other presidents who came after him. It's also a time to break out the rankings and see how presidents compare to each other. When it comes to how President Joe Biden will be regarded, it's not looking too good for him.
Earlier this month, Pew Research released a poll that showed a plurality of respondents don't think Biden will be a successful president in the long run. A plurality, at 43 percent, think he'll be unsuccessful, while 37 percent think it's too early to tell. Just 20 percent think he'll be successful.
Pew broke these respondents down further by religious affiliation, and the results only get more brutal with nuance. No plurality of any religious group thinks Biden will be a successful president. Rather the best-case scenario for Biden is the religious groups where a plurality think it's too early to tell.
Biden fares the best with Black Protestants, in that 49 percent say it's too early to tell. Thirty-five percent think he'll be considered successful and 14 percent say unsuccessful. The numbers are similar for Hispanic Catholics, in that 48 percent say it's too early, while 32 percent say successful and 19 percent say unsuccessful.
The president also fares somewhat well among the religiously affiliated, in that 44 percent say it's too early to tell, though more say they think Biden will be considered unsuccessful than successful, by 34 to 22 percent, respectively.
These less terrible numbers lose some of their charm though when greater context is provided. Justin Nortey's write-up for Pew Research Center highlighted how "One year in, Biden job approval down among Black Protestants, other Christians and religious ‘nones’."
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Nortey reminds that "there have been sizable declines in positive ratings from Black Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated – two groups that are among the Democratic Party’s most loyal constituencies."
Among Hispanic Catholics, Biden went down from 74 to 64 percent, down from 65 to 47 percent to the religiously unaffiliated, to down from a whopping 92 to 65 percent among Black Protestants.
The poll had been conducted January 10-17, with 5,128 adults and a margin of error of 2.0 percentage points.
A big poll to watch will be the C-SPAN "Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership," which has been conducted since 2000 each time there is a change in administration.
The most recent C-SPAN poll, released in July, shows former President Donald Trump ranking 41 out of 44 presidents. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin D. Roosevelt make up the top three.
Biden will likely be included in the 2025 or 2029 poll, then.
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