On Thursday, Fox News released results of their March 2022 poll, which, among other bad news for President Joe Biden, found that 68 percent of Americans blame his administration for rising gas prices. With gas prices surging to record highs this month, the number who blame this administration, is up from 63 percent from February.
The GOP tweeted about that 68 percent figure, along with the hashtag of #BidenGasHike, causing "68% of Americans" to trend on Twitter. The White House had previously tried to go with #PutinPriceHike, as our friends at Twitchy picked up on earlier this month.
A Fox News poll write-up from Dana Blanton noted that key takeaways included gas prices, such as how "An overwhelming majority says rising gas prices are a problem for their family." The rest of the news is not good for Biden, either.
Similarly, respondents care a great deal about inflation. Other takeaways from Blanton include how "Over half of voters think inflation is 'not at all' under control and views on the economy remain decidedly negative" and "Two-thirds disapprove of how Biden is handling inflation, including a sizable minority of Democrats."
Breaking down the numbers, 31 percent of respondents agree with how Biden is handling inflation, compared to 66 percent who disapprove. Democrats are the only demographic broken down by political party that approves, though it's just by 56 percent, while 39 percent of Democrats still disapprove. Eighty-nine percent of Republicans and 74 percent of Independents disapprove.
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On the economy overall, Blanton mentioned another takeaway of how "More than twice as many think the Biden administration has made the economy worse rather than better."
Seventy-four percent have a negative regard of the condition economy. This includes the 32 percent who regard it as being in "fair" condition and a plurality, at 42 percent, regarding it as being in "poor" condition Just 26 percent have a positive regard, in that 20 percent say it's "good" and just 6 percent say it's "excellent."
As far as how Biden is handling the economy, 38 percent approve while 59 percent disapprove. Further, a majority of respondents, at 53 percent, say Biden has made the economy worse, while 22 percent say he's made it better and 24 percent say he's made no difference.
It's not just the Fox News poll where Biden fares poorly for his handling of the economy. According to data from RealClearPolitics (RCP) for February 20 to March 22, 37.7 percent of him approve, while 57.8 percent disapprove.
The one "bright spot" Blanton pointed to was that his favorability ratings this month were slightly less terrible, in that 45 percent approve while 54 percent disapprove. Last month it was 43 percent to 56 percent. That's some desperation from the White House when at least Biden is underwater by only 9 points instead of double digits.
While many of the tweets were those taking issue with the poll results, such replies don't give these respondents enough credit. The American people aren't stupid, as many of the tweets claim they are. For the poll also found that 68 percent blame Putin for the gas prices as well.
The Biden administration has done itself little to no favors on this issue. On his first day in office, Biden an executive order canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, and has since attempted to rely on tapping into the oil reserve or looking to bad foreign actors who won't even take our calls.
Meanwhile, the Fox News poll also found that the American people want more reliance on domestic energy.
This includes 74 percent who favor "increasing domestic oil and gas production," and the 65 percent who favor "approving oil and gas pipelines like Keystone XL." Even a plurality of Democrats, at 49 percent, support such pipelines.
It's also not the best look for the administration to play the blame game when it comes to focusing solely on Vladimir Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. While that does have an effect on gas prices, they have been rising even before Putin invaded. Further, we could have been in a better spot had we been more energy independent at the time.
Republicans are highlighting the issue of gas prices when it comes to targeting Democrats at the state level, as well. This has been a major project for the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), which, as I highlighted last night, has released ads blaming Democratic politicians in the state legislatures and in Congress.
Democrats at the state level are also prone to pandering on relief efforts such as the gas tax, perhaps with no greater example than Minnesota Democrats who introduced and voted against their own proposal.
The Fox News poll was conducted March 18-21, which includes 1,004 registered voters. There was a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
