In his speech on September 9, 2021, President Joe Biden chastised unvaccinated Americans, contemptuously labeled them a “distinct minority” and stated that “We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin.” However, the President’s plummeting poll numbers seem to reflect that it is actually the American people who are losing patience with his incompetent and untrustworthy administration.
Simply put, Biden’s approval rating is sinking. According to Gallup’s September polling [2021 Sept. 1-17], President Biden’s approval rating is at 43%, a 14-point drop from his approval rating of 57% earlier this year [2021 Jan. 21-Feb. 2 & Apr. 1-21]. See, news.gallup.com, Presidential Approval Ratings-Joe Biden. Gallup’s September polling reflects that a majority – 53% – disapprove of Biden’s job performance. The Quinnipiac University poll results released last week are even bleaker for Biden, reflecting a dismal 38% approval of his job performance. See, Americans Give President Biden Lowest Marks Across The Board, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Majority Say the Biden Administration Is Not Competent, Oct. 6, 2021, poll.qu.edu. Perhaps most worrisome though for Democrats is that Biden’s job approval among independents fell from 61% early in his term to 37% in the recent Gallup polling. See, news.gallup.com.
But is this really surprising? After all, in a stunning nine-months of what could be called The Incompetency in Leadership Series, Biden has treated the American people to a botched military withdrawal from Afghanistan, spiraling inflation, wallet-breaking gas and food prices, lack of transparency and candor in his and his press secretary’s communications with the American people, and the absence of any meaningful enforcement of existing federal immigration laws or any viable alternative policymaking concerning the crisis at the southern border.
Yet, still, even with all of that demonstrative gross incompetence, it is still quite remarkable that the purportedly largest popular-vote amasser in U.S. presidential history has fallen so quickly from grace with the American public. After all, Joe Biden had nearly twelve-million more votes in 2020 than the uber-popular Barack Obama garnered in the 2008 presidential election. See, Joe Biden breaks Obama’s record for most votes ever cast for a U.S. Presidential candidate, by Sophie Lewis, Dec. 7, 2020, cbsnews.com. Despite Biden’s astounding vote-tally in November of 2020, his approval rating in September of 2021 of 43%, is significantly lower than Obama’s approval rating of 52% in September of 2009. See, news.gallup.com, Presidential Approval Ratings-Barack Obama.
It may be tempting to draw comparisons between Biden’s low approval rating at this point in his presidency to those of Bill Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s in September of their respective first years on the job. After all, Donald Trump’s approval rating was only 37% in early September of 2017 [2017 Sept. 4-10] and Bill Clinton’s was at 47% [1993 Sept. 10-12] in early September of 1993. See, gallup.com; Presidential Approval Ratings-Bill Clinton; Donald Trump. Any comparison though between Biden’s low approval rating and that of Clinton’s and Trump’s in the month of September of their first terms should take into account the historical context of the prior office holders’ elections.
In the 1992 presidential election, an independent candidate, Texas businessman Ross Perot, garnered nearly 19% of the popular vote: the highest percentage of any third-party or independent candidate in a U.S. presidential election since Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. See, Third party performances in U.S. Presidential elections 1892 to 2020, by Aaron O’Neill, Feb. 17, 2021, statista.com. Bill Clinton was successful in beating incumbent George H.W. Bush, but Clinton only garnered 43% of the popular vote in the 1992 election. See, Presidential Election of 1992, britannica.com. It is not surprising that Clinton’s approval rating would be at 47% in September of 1993, considering that more than half of the electorate did not even vote for him in November of 1992.
As for the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump won the electoral college, but lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes, renewing calls by some on the left, including Clinton herself, to abolish the electoral college. See, Clinton: It’s time to abolish the electoral college, by Dan Merica, Sept. 14, 2017, cnn.com. Perhaps more importantly though, was the liberal media’s hostile and negative coverage of Donald Trump that was pervasive from the inception of his campaign onward. In light of these factors, it is not surprising that Trump’s approval rating would be at 37% in early September of 2017.
Comparatively, Joe Biden’s spectacular victory in the popular vote count to his precipitous plunge in the polls within the first nine months of his presidency is exceptional. The reasons are various, but perhaps the most telling is the public’s growing lack of trust in this presidential administration. Let’s take, for example, the recent numbers from the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index that reflect that presently only 42% of the participants trust President Biden a great deal or a fair amount to provide them with accurate information on COVID-19: This represents a significant decline of 16 points from when the question was posed right after the inauguration. See Many Americans see post-Covid life as farther away, Oct. 12, 2021, authors C. Jackson, M. Newall, J. Yi, & N. Lloyd, ispsos.com.
The Quinnipiac poll released last week also reflects a sentiment of distrust among the American people with the current administration, in that a majority – 55% – of those polled indicated that the Biden Administration has not been competent in running the government. See, poll.qu.edu. A whopping 67% of those polled disagree with the way Biden is handling immigration issues. Among these dismal numbers, most problematic for the Democrats may be that 57% of independents opine that Biden is dishonest.
Despite the superabundant number of votes cast for President Biden only a mere year ago, it appears that the American public has soured on him even though he has only been on the job for nine months. This is quite an impressive feat to have accomplished in such a short time span, along with his ability to inspire a chant at collegiate and professional sporting events. It took grievous mismanagement combined with failed messaging, but Joe Biden has certainly made his mark in presidential history.