Chances are that you don’t approve of the job Joe Biden is doing as president. The polls are consistent: according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed Tuesday, only 39 percent of Americans approved of Biden’s handling of his job, which is close to the low point of 36 percent earlier this summer. Some context: The Democratic base in this country is roughly 42 percent. Biden’s approval rating has been below 50 percent since August 2021. And earlier polls have found that a majority of Democrats want a different candidate in 2024.
Some of this is understandable. Mortgage rates. Gas prices. Inflation. By a 2-1 margin, Americans think the country is on the wrong track, which should temper some of the more optimistic projections of the effect of abortion and Trump on the midterm. The pocketbook issues are what they are, and for most voters, they count. It’s always the economy.
But there’s a disconnect somewhere here. Biden just came off one of the most successful legislative sessions since Obamacare. He literally changed where America stands on climate issues. He did something huge. And he managed to do it in no small part precisely because he had the experience in the Senate to know how to make the institution respond. He cut the deals that had to be cut. He earned his pay. So why no uptick in support?
And it’s not just his legislative accomplishments, significant as they are. Biden is a genuinely decent and honorable human being. In the Senate, he was known for hard work, compromise, diligence and decency. We used to call him “Uncle Joe,” and it was said with affection, because of his decency and integrity, because he was a real person who had been touched by tragedy and carries with him a sort of dignity and gravitas that is a measure of his character. When he says he knows the American people, as he did in a speech last week, he is right. He does. He is one of us in a way Donald Trump never was.
