The White House isn’t happy with a Quinnipiac poll released this week that gives Joe Biden an approval of 33%, Axios reports. Jennifer O’Malley, deputy chief of staff, put out a memo that says, in part, “This week’s Quinnipiac poll, just like Quinnipiac’s poll for the last five months, is very likely an outlier. The FiveThirtyEight average of all public polls finds the President’s approval is at 43%.”
So a 43% approval rating is something they ought to be happier about? That is still, as it is sometimes put, underwater. And they are taking on more water by the day.
O’Malley’s memo concludes:
“In their first year in office, the President and Congressional Democrats took action to deliver results for working families, getting people back to work and saving millions of lives through a historic vaccination program. Today, more than 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated and millions are getting booster shots each week and it’s clear the vaccines work against Omicron, reducing your likelihood of hospitalization illness by 17 times. And, as a result of the American Rescue Plan and the President’s action, we created 6.4 million more jobs in 2021 – the most jobs created in a year ever. The President and Congressional Democrats will build on this progress in 2022, addressing price increases, mitigating supply chain bottlenecks, implementing the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and making additional progress fighting the virus.”
Well. . .yes. But.
Yes, there are lots of people vaccinated. But anyone who has watched or read any news of late knows that Omicron is knocking the nation on its proverbial ass, and the Biden Administration doesn’t seem to be ahead of the pandemic (which is becoming endemic) but instead is reacting to it.
And let’s face it, they shouldn’t be all that happy with the number of Americans getting jabbed because while the “200 million Americans” may seem like a big number, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, when it comes to the percentage of the population fully vaccinated, you have to go down the list — United Arab Emirates, Brunei, Portugal, Chile, Malta, China, Cuba, Cambodia, Singapore, Spain, Denmark, Malaysia, Seychelles, New Zealand, Iceland, Australia, Japan, Canada, Qatar, Ireland, Uruguay, Belgium, Kuwait, Finland, France, Italy, Argentina, Austria, Ecuador, Bhutan, Norway, Germany, Sweden, Mauritius, Bahrain, United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Vietnam, Netherlands, Taiwan, Maldives, Luxembourg, Brazil, Fiji, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Liechtenstein, Mongolia, Latvia, Greece, Andorra, Israel, Lithuania, Thailand, El Salvador, San Marino, Sri Lanka—until you reach the United States. The U.S. is at 63.5%.
Not swell.
Yes, there are lots of new jobs, but there was lots of unemployment. And whether it is at your local supermarket or fast-food establishment, you’re likely to find that there is a dearth of employees. What’s more, if in either place, if you can find what you’re looking for (shelves are still comparatively sparse; things are being taken off of menus), given the rate of inflation, it is going to cost more.
“Addressing price increases”? This ought not be something happening in the future, but happening right now.
The Biden Administration is clearly not been doing a bang-up job. To be sure he has brought the White House back to a state of normalcy compared with the situation when the Trump Administration was inhabiting the place, but that isn’t exactly a high bar.
Certainly, the so-called Republicans aren’t being helpful with anything (what is it that they’re actually doing beside continuing to be the Party of No?).
But there needs to be better messaging coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because most of the messaging — by reputable outlets — about COVID and the economy undoubtedly make most Americans — yes, 77% and maybe even more — feel that what’s going on isn’t at all good and the Biden Administration isn’t making it much better.
Macaulay is pundit-at-large at The Hustings, http://thehustings.news where he comments primarily for the right column.