In one sense when he took office President Joe Biden was given a field of cushy political clover to walk through.
Because of COVID-related fear and lockdowns, the high-octane Trump economy roared to a halt.
Accordingly, once scientists better understood how to treat the virus, and the Trump administration ushered in the vaccines, Biden was given the tools to propel the economy back to pre-COVID levels.
Yet much like his personal popularity, Biden is hemorrhaging supporters who believe he can pull the economy out of the mire – and one reason, ironically, is his virus messaging, critics say.
First, the poll.
In recent days, some pollsters have produced Biden’s job approval rating in the mid-30s, or if they’re generous, the low 40s.
The liberal website Axios looked specifically at how voters view Biden’s ability to boost the economy.
The outcome: “Confidence in President Biden’s ability to rescue the economy from COVID-19 has dropped since January,” Axios said.
Notably, “It’s Democrats and independents driving the declining economic confidence. … Their softening faith could hinder Biden’s ability to lead and hurt Democrats’ position heading into the 2022 midterms.”
By the numbers, the ratio of Democrats who believe Biden can lead America to a “quick” recovery fell from 86 percent to 71 percent between January and October. Among independents, the rate dropped from 51 percent to 42 percent.
Factor in the expected low Republican support – which ironically has gone up, from 17 percent to 18 percent, as Biden has flailed and failed – and the overall survey showed that faith in Biden dropped from 52 percent to 44 percent.
And the key reason for the loss of confidence in the president his own messaging on rebounding from COVID, the pollsters said.
“Large shares of Americans are still in the dark about the basic science around transmission and intensity of illness for the vaccinated versus unvaccinated,” Axios noted.
For example, only 21 percent believe that Biden can persuade the unvaxxed to get a jab – which seems logical since he demands vaccination as a condition to navigate nearly all of life.
But that seems to reflect the respondents’ own apprehension about the vaccines.
In one instance, Axios pointed out that only two-thirds of those surveyed – which is a lower rate than the number of Americans actually vaccinated – know the vaccines are effective in preventing “serious” illness among people with so-called “breakthrough” cases.
Yet the pollsters said it is the Biden faithful who are bringing him down – or maybe vice versa.
Chris Jackson, senior vice president of the polling firm Ipsos, noted, “There’s this huge mushiness about who’s protected, how much they’re protected.”
“Democrats have always been more worried about the pandemic” than Republicans, he added. Consequently, “they still don’t necessarily think they’re safe.”
Cliff Young, Ipsos’s president, added that Biden, who infamously said he’s run out of patience with the unvaxxed, is “focused on the wrong problem.”
“The problem is not the unvaccinated. The problem is convincing those who are vaccinated that they have the tools to navigate a COVID world … [and reassuring] those who’ve been vaccinated that they can live a normal life again.” he told Axios.
“People are confused. There’s no sense of what the endgame is.”
Perhaps one reason they don’t is that Biden himself doesn’t know what it is, or when our nation will get there.
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