When NBC’s Chuck Todd starts laying out how bad the numbers are for Joe Biden, you know it’s not looking good for the president.
Todd laid out how bad the “wrong track” numbers looked for Biden and the Democrats.
“Just 20 percent of voters believe this country is headed in the right direction. Seventy-four percent say the nation is on the wrong track,” Todd said. He explained how it’s been about 70 for a sustained period “for about a year now.” “The last two periods in the history of this poll when it had this kind of sustained negativity about the direction of the country was before the 92 election and before the 2008 election. Both of those changed the party controlling the White House,” he added.
I’ll give my typical poll warning — “We have a lot of time left” and “Don’t rely too much on polls.” But 20 percent is just pitiful. The 2022 elections weren’t a referendum on Biden, but 2024 will be, and it’s not looking good for him with numbers like this.
When it comes to Joe Biden, his approval numbers are still low in the poll, at 43 percent, with 53 percent disapproving. Todd notes this is still about where it’s been since his numbers dropped with Biden’s debacle of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, which confirms that he’s never really been able to recover from that in the eyes of Americans. But the number of people who have concerns about Biden’s health—even among Democrats—is staggering.
“A full 68 percent of voters — including 43 percent of Democrats, which is twice what it was in 2020 — say they are concerned that Biden does not have the necessary mental and physical health to be president,” Todd detailed. That’s the number who say it’s a “major or moderate concern.” That’s up from 51 percent in 2020. So constantly seeing what bad shape Biden is in day after day — showing the incoherence and all the issues — is getting through to people, and they believe it’s a big issue.
The polls also showed that former President Donald Trump was increasing his lead on the rest of the GOP field.
Trump gained points since April, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lost ground:
Head to head with DeSantis, Trump was still far in front.
So that would look like the federal indictment didn’t have any impact. If anything, it may have helped him.
The number that looked positive in the poll for DeSantis was that in the general election, it had him tied with Biden, while it had Trump running 4 points behind. That’s different from the Harvard Harris poll that had Trump ahead of Biden by seven points.
The poll had some issues in that it was conducted among registered voters, not likely voters, and it was weighted toward Democrats, with more people saying they had been Biden voters in the past.
But that says a lot, even if the poll is weighted. People still think the country is so on the wrong track under this president. I think the numbers would be even worse even without the slant toward Democrats—and that’s bad news for Joe Biden.
