Democrats began 2021 as the preferred party of 49% of the country. Only 40% identified as Republicans. When 2022 began, the standings had been reversed.
Forty-two percent of Americans identified as Democrats, and 47% as Republicans, a turnaround of 14 points.
While President Joe Biden began 2021 with an approval rating in the mid-50s, he ended the year with an approval rating in the low 40s. One national poll showed Biden’s approval rating sinking to 33%.
On Wednesday, a Politico/Morning Consult survey came out that showed that 37% of Americans awarded Biden a grade of “F” for his first year, with another 12% giving him a “D.” School kids with grades like that risk being held back a year or expelled.
On his handling of the issues of immigration and restoring national unity, 40% of Americans flunked Biden. On the economy, 38% gave him an “F.”
Also, in that Politico survey, 68% of respondents said America is on the “wrong track,” more than twice the number who believe she is heading in the “right direction.”
In this same survey, Biden’s overall approval stands at 40%. What is the message that the totality of these numbers conveys?
Democrat and media obsession with Jan. 6, their vast exaggeration of what happened, and the campaign to indict the GOP as a mortal threat to “American democracy” has failed as a strategy. And Biden’s presidency is seen by the people he leads as a failing presidency.
The foremost issue in the public mind is the economy, inflation in particular. The consumer price index has been surging at 7%. But for the Federal Reserve to put on the brakes to control inflation could mean a major hit in the stock market, which was robust in Biden’s first year……
A second issue on which Biden is racking up failing grades in the public’s mind is immigration, which means the southern border across which some 2 million illegal immigrants from more than 100 countries poured in 2021. Biden has conceded that he has no chance of dealing with the crisis legislatively because of GOP opposition in Congress……
Another issue gaining traction is the explosion of flash mob robberies and shootings and killings in Democratic-run cities, coupled with the perception that progressives are soft on criminals and tough on cops……
As for the coronavirus, the Biden administration neither anticipated nor prepared for the delta and omicron variants. And no one knows where we will be next November — hopefully, in a better place.
As of now, Biden is a drag on the Democratic Party at the national level, and very probably in the off-year election in November. What began his slide in public approval last August was a foreign policy debacle, the perception of a bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan.