A report by NBC News published Tuesday shows Joe Biden and his White House team in meltdown over Biden’s stubborn low approval ratings and his inability to govern effectively which he and his staff blame on outside forces. It’s the kind of report that only comes out on a Democrat president when the staff and elected officials start looking for the lifeboats.
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The revealing article comes as a new Civiqs poll shows Biden with 35 percent overall approval and 22 percent approval by independents. Biden is under water in 47 states with only Hawaii putting him over 50 percent at 52 while the two other positive states have Biden approval in the forties: Vermont, 47 percent; Massachusetts, 45 percent. Biden’s approval/disapproval in his home state of Delaware stands at a shocking 36/53. Biden was elected U.S. Senator from Delaware every six years from 1972 through 2008 until he was sworn in as Barack Obama’s vice president in 2009.
The NBC report has Biden bewildered by his low poll numbers, angry at his staff for constantly correcting him, frustrated that Democrats aren’t defending him in the media and pressing his advisers for winning messaging. The article notes Biden’s poll tested messaging insult of President Trump and his supporters, “Ultra-MAGA”, has become a celebrated marketing bonanza for the Trump movement. One key Biden failing missing from NBC’s otherwise good report is what precipitated Biden’s falling out with the American people: Biden’s humiliating Afghanistan retreat last August.
Faced with a worsening political predicament, President Joe Biden is pressing aides for a more compelling message and a sharper strategy while bristling at how they’ve tried to stifle the plain-speaking persona that has long been one of his most potent assets.
Biden is rattled by his sinking approval ratings and is looking to regain voters’ confidence that he can provide the sure-handed leadership he promised during the campaign, people close to the president say.
Crises have piled up in ways that have at times made the Biden White House look flat-footed: record inflation, high gas prices, a rise in Covid case numbers — and now a Texas school massacre that is one more horrific reminder that he has been unable to get Congress to pass legislation to curb gun violence. Democratic leaders are at a loss about how he can revive his prospects by November, when midterm elections may cost his party control of Congress.
…Amid a rolling series of calamities, Biden’s feeling lately is that he just can’t catch a break. “Biden is frustrated. If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” said a person close to the president.
An assumption baked into Biden’s candidacy was that he would preside over a smoothly running administration by dint of his decades of experience in public office. Yet there are signs of managerial breakdowns that have angered both him and his party.
Biden is annoyed that he wasn’t alerted sooner about the baby formula shortage and that he got his first briefing in the past month, even though the crisis had long been in the making.
…Beyond policy, Biden is unhappy about a pattern that has developed inside the West Wing. He makes a clear and succinct statement — only to have aides rush to explain that he actually meant something else. The so-called clean-up campaign, he has told advisers, undermines him and smothers the authenticity that fueled his rise. Worse, it feeds a Republican talking point that he’s not fully in command.
…Biden has vented to aides about not getting credit from Americans or the news media for actions he believes have helped the country, particularly on the economy.
The president has also told aides he doesn’t think enough Democrats go on television to defend him. A particular sore spot is his slumping poll numbers; he’s mystified that his approval rating has dropped to a level approaching that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, ranked by historians as one of the worst presidents in history.
“He’s now lower than Trump, and he’s really twisted about it,” another person close to the White House said.
End excerpt. Please click this link for the entire ‘must read’ article on the Biden meltdown by NBC News.
There is just a little over five months left until November’s midterm elections. Almost every indication is for a historic wave election against the Democrats.
