I don't understand President Biden's approval polls.

[panader0]

How can a person who voted for Biden in the election change their mind and now disapprove
of his performance after all that he has accomplished so far? When I make up my mind to
support someone, especially in politics, I stick with that person.
Are all these nay-sayers just fair weather friends? Or people with very short memories?
Biden was rolling with about 60% approval at first and has faded to about 40. (Not sure of the
actual numbers).
So I'll ask my fellow DUers, how many of you have changed your mind about President Biden?
Is the drop manufactured by the media? I just don't get it.

[uponit7771]

1. Lack of messaging , we need to copy GQP message mechanics not their evils in message

... and be more effective telling the truth and defeating their lies.

For instance, Like Obamacare, we negotiated with ourselves out in public and then didn't degrade GQP standing for voting against that IB.

They would've had adds in each state of dem rep who voted against the BIF and bashed us continually with it

[CaptainTruth]

29. Agree 100%. We do good things for Americans, but we don't tell them about it.

Meanwhile, the GOP floods the message space with messages about how evil & socialist we are, CRT, etc etc.

[uponit7771]

30. +1, "..GOP floods the message space..." 👈🏾 this is EXACTLY what they do to define a point like ...

... CRT and instead of the sane M$M calling them a damn lie they pose the questions like GQP is serious about talking about the issue.

We need to fight back by flooding a message space with amplitude and frequency.

CRT is made up lie by the GQP and is going to be used next year to bring dems to fight on GQP ground.

We need to call them liars NOW

[PatSeg]

45. Also the media tends to nitpick everything

and presents the administration and his accomplishments in a negative light. Apparently positive stories aren't good for ratings. They have to create controversy where often there is none. Unfortunately a lot of people really are not paying that close attention and they judge Biden on the little bits and pieces they pick up on TV and social media.

[uponit7771]

68. There's no one on dems side shaping the messaging from FAUX news the M$M keys off of ...

... and they need that.

The DNC still treats messaging as a peripheral event and it should be the primary.

We relatively have a roaring economy but don't have anyone out there flooding a message zone touting it

[PatSeg]

72. After all these years,

hopefully Democrats are finally getting it. Republicans have succeeded by repeating their lies over and over again in very simplistic, catchy language. Democrats need to do the same thing with the truth. Maybe they need to study FDR. He knew how to do it very effectively for years.

[Bettie]

56. But, the media chooses to amplify the Right Wing messages

and drowns ours out.

We need to find a way to overcome that as well.

[uponit7771]

70. "...and drowns ours out..." Like someone said on Nance's thread we don't have an adequate message

... to begin with that meets their amplitude.

Biggest tell? Lack of radio in CoC radio stations, we don't need rural stations when we underutilize the stations we have in urban areas of color and urban radio stations.

I'm just now hearing a pushback against anti vax crap on the stations I listen to

[Botany]

2. Is the drop manufactured by the media?

In a word yes. His policies and goals are approved of by some thing like > 60% of
Americans and to me at least he is the best President I have ever seen but our 24/7
cable news driven infotainment networks which are owned by Republicans have to
sell "the horse race" and the GOP will win big in '22 & '24 memes.

How many times if you can stomach watching much of that "shit" have you heard about
Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan when it was in reality an incredible
success.

[Scrivener7]

5. And yet the drop exists. I am pretty sure he knows what he is doing and he timed

Afghanistan knowing this would happen. But we ignore this drop at our peril.

[mitch96]

13. I'm glad he got the Afghanistan pull out of the way early. NOT during the midterm election

People have short term memory. Stress the positives and hammer that during the midterms. Make the positives louder than the repuke stress of the negatives.. YMMV
m

[Scrivener7]

64. This exactly.

[wnylib]

34. But TFG timed it, not Biden.

Biden extended the withdrawal date a little farther from the May deadline set by TFG.

[Scrivener7]

65. Yes. I mean he timed it within the constraints of the situation.

He knew it would be a shit show, mitigated that as much as he could and kept it away from the timing of the midterms.

[triron]

39. We are headed toward dictatorial fascism. Americans are ignorant and stupid.

Keep hoping otherwise but seems inexorable dumbing down.

[2naSalit]

28. +1

[c-rational]

43. +2

[NJCher]

46. NY Post reluctantly admitted last night

That his polling is climbing and is now back in the 40s.

This from a right wing rag like the NY Post.

I have not worried about these polls. I think that if we properly claim credit for the bills he and the Dems in Congress have gotten passed into law (and that's a big IF), we will have good ratings by the time of the midterms.

[madville]

21. They'll never be able to frame Afghanistan as a success

Mostly because 13 US Service Members were blown up and then in response they blew up 10 innocent Afghan civilians including 7 children with a drone strike.

[Tommymac]

27. Horsepatootie. History WILL show the success. Military withdrawals are HARD bloody affairs

This one went as well as could be expected. People die in wars. Civilians die in wars. Shit happens.

The collateral damage in this complex withdrawal, FORCED on President Joe by TFG's criminal actions and lack of planning, was minimal.

It's the Rethug 1% owned Corporate M$M that is driving the failure meme.

We Democrats need to fight back every single time we hear this failure meme - it is NOT true.

If anyone is to be blamed, blame TFG. Blame the Military/Industrial War Machine too - they are also pissed becasue their obscene profits went south with the end of the 'Endless War'.

[judesedit]

33. I agree with you. Also...I've never been polled.

[Polybius]

38. Best President you have ever seen?

Better than him?

Link to tweet

[Botany]

41. Thanx for posting Obama is all class, style, and smarts but ....

Joe Biden is the best POTUS I have ever seen. (for these works alone)
He has protected one of the world's great rain forest in the Tongass, gave protection to Bristol Bay and the Copper River
River Watershed and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, protected the Grand Staircase Escalante/Bears Ears
lands in Utah, stopped Trump's idea to drill for oil and gas in the Chaco Canyon area in New Mexico, and reinstated
President Obama's Marine National Monument in the N. Atlantic which will preserve and protect wild fish stocks for generations.

[Poiuyt]

73. This - Whatever the MSM says becomes the de facto reality

Excluding Fox, if the mainstream news outlets start saying that Biden is having trouble, then mainstream Americans will believe he's failing.

It's all perception.

[Duncanpup]

3. Not at all I'm very supportive of Biden and VP Harris.

Remember we have another three years for build back better to show benefits.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Here are my theories:

1. I can understand MAGAts casting their votes against Biden.

2. SOME Democrats and Independents poll against Biden because:
A. They're impatient and want change NOW.
B. They refuse to acknowledge the bottleneck created by a 50/50 Senate with the hold-ups being Manchin and Sinema.
C. Biden isn't belligerent and bombastic like Trump. He's soft-spoken and well, not as exciting. IOW, boring.
D. Biden isn't yelling at Republicans and damning them (as well as Machin and Sinema). See #C.
E. There will always be a group of contrarians whom you just can't make happy.

That being said, I don't trust the numbers for low polling. It appears contrived and used to get attention by the media.

[Freddie]

12. That's my son

Impatient, and thinks Joe can just wave a wand and make the 2 Dinos do the right thing. Thinks we would be so much better off if Bernie had run. If Bernie had run we’d still have TFG, sorry.

[maxsolomon]

66. Sanders did run. He lost.

I firmly believe that much of the swing in approval comes from young progressives or Sanders-left progressives.

I've seen it on my Social Media; all the policy that got negotiated out of the bills chasing after Manchin & Sinema's votes resulted in a bunch of "there's no difference between parties" bellyaching. They're reacting emotionally and are shockingly naive.

[mitch96]

14. Yes, buyers remorse is to be expected and It should not deter the forward momentum...nt

[Solomon]

6. Didn't someone show that it's Russian and Chinese bots at work, combined with our piss ass media?

The media makes me sick!!!!!! Even msnbc and CNN are doing it. I don't watch them anymore.

[uponit7771]

7. Then we need to work the media and their coverage, there was no media blitz in BIF

[Goonch]

8. The Disconnect Between Biden's Popular Policies and His Unpopularity

"Voters often punish a president for pushing an unpopular agenda. But President Biden has been learning that they rarely reward a president for enacting legislation."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/27/us/politics/biden-policies-approval-ratings.html

[gradmaster]

10. Biden's approval ratings

I don't understand either! I and my whole family voted for him, as did most of our friends. None of us are sorry that we did, and we are all happy with the direction the country is going in, although it's slow and painful thanks to stubborn Democrats and obstructive Repugs. We are especially happy to have a President who is not a constant source of embarrassment by his words and actions and who can actually complete a thought! I think that people in this country have several issues. First,they have no understanding of history; second, they have been trained to receive instant gratification because of access to wealth and to all that wealth can bring; third, Americans think our country is the center of the universe; fourth, not many have a real understanding of the fact that rights we do have living in a society are limited. These are just my observations after 75 years of life and having been a history teacher.

[NanceGreggs]

11. I voted for Joe ...

... because I had confidence in his abilities, complete trust in his judgment, and faith in his determination to do right by the country and its citizens.

I was certain that he would live up to my expectations - but instead, he has surpassed them at every turn.

As for those "approval polls", they - like so many things these days - don't seem to have any basis in reality. Therefore, I don't pay any attention to them.

And yes, I do believe the media has a hand in this.

[JohnSJ]

15. President Biden's approval polls started to decline with the Afghanistan withdrawal. I remember

it distinctly, because immediately after his speech on the withdrawal, I saw Jake Tapper mischaracterize and criticize that speech in the most unbalanced fashion since their reporting of Hillary's emails.

Shortly after, almost every other media outlet was following suit, and the echo chamber continued that for the whole week.

I wonder how many people actually were paying attention to Afghanistan before then. I suspect not very many.

The Afghanistan withdrawal was the catalyst that started the ball rolling with the negative slant on not on President Biden, but the Democratic party in general.

I think approval numbers are based on perception, and if the majority of "news outlets are feeding their commentaries with primarily negative news about the administration, whether fair or not, these polls are not surprising.

Out of all the polls, I think approval polls are the least reliable, and do not necessarily translate into votes

[panader0]

19. As Botany pointed out above, the withdrawal was actually a success.

The biggest ever. tfg had a definite hand in undermining stability pre-withdrawal.
Those Americans who didn't leave were mostly contractors just switching their business
from the US backed government to the Taliban.
F**k the media. Drama queens is all they are.

[uponit7771]

31. .. then the failure was in the messaging about it and allowing the GQP to flood the message zone ...

... with it was a failure vs the Biden admin getting out in front and defining the success parameters.

We need to copy the mechanics of the GQP message machine and not the message, they kick our asses with the mechanics.

[BlueJac]

17. The media is to blame!

24/7 Biden bashing. The finally mentioned the lowest number of unemployed claims since 1969. Biden is kicking butt with zero help from the GOP!

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

18. Whether we want to admit it...

...or not, the Republicans are good at cultural wars. They have no real policies to mention, but they run to the mics about Critical Race Theory, Muslim Jihads, and gun rights.


The base of the party, African American women, are the most powerless to combat this, and only have the power of the vote (which is eroding).

White liberals, however, will need to play a heavier role in messaging in that they are the ones most closely connected to national pulpits. Until my white liberal friends are fired up enough to show up at school board meetings and city council meetings, I'm afraid the messaging is going to continue to favor the ones who are actually...umm...delivering a message.

[chia]

20. HCR on the disconnect between President's accomplishments and approval rating (and media role)

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/november-27-2021

Today, Nate Cohn noted in the New York Times that the policies President Joe Biden and the Democrats are putting in place are hugely popular, and yet Biden’s own popularity numbers have dropped into the low 40s. It’s a weird disconnect that Cohn explains by suggesting that, above all, voters want “normalcy.”

Heaven knows that Biden, who took office in the midst of a pandemic that had crashed the economy and has had to deal with an unprecedented insurgency led by his predecessor, has not been able to provide normalcy.

In her own piece, journalist Magdi Semrau suggests that the media bears at least some of the responsibility for this disconnect, since it has given people a sense of the cost of Biden’s signature measures without specifying what’s in them, focused on negative information (negotiations are portrayed as “disarray,” for example), and ignored that Republicans have refused to participate in any lawmaking, choosing instead simply to be obstructionist. As Semrau puts it: "Democrats want to fix bridges, provide childcare and lower drug costs. Republicans don’t. These are political facts and voters should be aware of them."

To this I would add that Republican attacks on Democrats, which are simple and emotional, get far more traction and thus far more coverage in the mainstream press than the slow and successful navigation of our complicated world.

Much, much more useful contextualization at the link.

[Lawrence454]

22. Mostly because of independents

Biden soft voters that just didn’t like Trump but voted for their local Republican in 2020. I suspect it’s mostly them showing up in the disapprovals.

[wnylib]

35. Also, some people voted

against Trump more than for Biden.

[Act_of_Reparation]

23. People are fucking stupid.

They are selfish, lazy, utterly bereft of memory and long term goals, and largely operate with a child's understanding of the world around them. Their political calculus is as follows: I voted for X and I am unhappy, therefore X is to blame.

And there's very little we can actually do about it. This is the electorate we have to work with, and need to tailor our strategies to their (non)thinking.

[panader0]

24. I'm afraid you are correct.

I would hesitate about tailoring our strategies to their thinking though. I favor educating the ignorant
rather than playing down to their level.

[Act_of_Reparation]

25. These people are notoriously immune to education.

Education has to start early. It's too late for the vast majority of these folks. Fixing the education system will address the problem more completely in future generations, but in the present we have to work with what we have.

[c-rational]

54. I agree - a friend just sent me a text saying literacy in the United States is 79%! That means 21%

are functionally illiterate, and further, 54% of adults in the US have literacy below the 6th grade level. Do not wonder why the reThugs want a dumb electorate.

[Joinfortmill]

26. Not me. I love him even more.

[DetroitLegalBeagle]

32. Not every voter for Biden in 2020

Was actually voting for Biden. They were voting against trump. Also, the media isn't helping things. Constant negative reporting is going to take its toll.

[ejbr]

51. +1/nt

[Polybius]

36. Gas prices and stocks

The average person blames the President when they're bad, and credits him when they're good.

[gulliver]

40. We got the approval-dampening stuff out of the way early

Biden got us out of Afghanistan and made two-out-of-three major package purposes (one to go). The inept/arrogant media reported every bump in the road like it was the end of the world, as expected I'm sure. By the time election season warms up, we will hopefully be coasting, the hard parts out of the way. At least that's what I'm hoping. Republicans running against us can be painted as Trump trogs, stirring up racial trouble, wanting everyone back in their old jobs (and shutting up about it), wishing we were back in Afghanistan, and dying to repeal rural Internet upgrades.

[Tree Lady]

42. I think some of the polls are push poll

Where they ask the question in a way to slant answer. I do yougov surveys for at least 12 years. One question I get a lot is, is your life better now than last year? They ask if you like how Joe is doing on specific things and are you happy with him on how he is handling it. It would be easy to take those answers negatively even if person would overwhelmingly still vote for Joe again but be unhappy on one thing.

Knowing this I give Joe top rating no matter what they ask or how.

[ProfessorGAC]

62. My Concern, As Well

I'd like to see a pollster ask about a voter's approval or disapproval based upon a list if his policies.
The last question could then be "Given your approval of his policies & initiatives, does that mean you approve of the job Biden is doing?"
It frames the approval around the job & achievements, and lowers the profile of personality.
I'm betting the "approval" numbers would be much higher if focused on what he's doing that they may like.
It would help resolve the disconnect between the popularity of his policies and the more vague approval of the person.

[orangecrush]

44. Instant jump in gas prices

And food and other items going up fast.

The gas price jump is suspect, Joe came out and said so, acting on this rapidly would discourage further manipulation.

He's doing well on fixing the supply chain.

They are trying to Jimmy Carter him.

They blow us out in the mid term, GOP takes control of congress, things go to hell quickly, next Presidential election they control everything.

Armchair solution - act fast, lots of action, and message the living shit out of it.

Commercials won't cost as much as having a dictator.

[world wide wally]

47. Lying works.

Just ask Trump.

[seta1950]

48. It's the gop m.o.

They capture the narrative and ruin everything, they are complaining about inflation, high gas prices, besides people are like sheep

[Texin]

49. The media drive opinion polls. The constant theme that the Dems are

in "disarray" skews poll numbers. And, depending on the polling vehicle, the wording used to ask questions drives answers.

My opinion of Biden hasn't changed since I voted for him a little more than a year ago. I believe the accomplishments of this administration and the Dems in general has been remarkable. The delivery of vaccines for people has been astonishing in and of itself. But the media have diluted everything because in their chase for ratings, they'll skew messaging to a doom and gloom storyline. I also think that people are just flat out weary of all the sturm und drang siege mentality that seems to overhang everything. The rethugs and their Qers, not to mention the velveeta vulgarian's toxicity has poisoned the minds of so many that it's virtually impossible to feel optimistic about this country's future.

[hay rick]

50. The approval polls are following a media narrative.

The media keeps asking if Joe Biden has stopped beating his wife.

[SKKY]

52. Three simple reason...

1. Gas prices
2. The price of gas
3. The price to fill up at the gas pump

All of which he has ZERO to do with. But, you can't tell that to folks whose attention span doesn't extend past the four corners of a bumper sticker.

[kairos12]

53. Rethugs know if you don't do anything

the MSM moves on.

[tblue37]

55. Propaganda works, and the GOP control most of the media.

[jalan48]

57. Millions of Americans rely on the right wing media for thier news and it shapes their view of

current politics. They don't need to watch it full time, just enough to sow doubt about Biden or anyone on the left.

[nevergiveup]

58. People today are angry and upset about everything

and the media is one of the biggest instigators. It also doesn't help that there are big segments of American society that are borderline stupid. it would not be possible to be president of the United States today and have good polling numbers. We are living in crazy times.

[El Mimbreno]

59. I see the Civiqs poll...

on Daily Kos and usually scroll right past it because I think it's bullshit. 38% approval? Seriously.
Sure, I don't agree 100% with what Biden does, but I still back him 100%.

[KentuckyWoman]

60. He is not a flashy braggard.

Even if people know what is in the legislation and see a benefit, he does not brag every 5 min on Twitter so they don't equate it with Biden.

Also, Democrats elect adults. Republican elect screaming toddlers. If you are in Kroger and some 3 yr old is pitching a fit good luck getting the folks nearby to hear you say the store is on fire.

The Jihad Squad is one neverending fit. Until people get bored and ratings drop, it will take a lot of work to be heard over the hysterics.

[Progressive Jones]

61. I support Biden 100%, but even I have a beef with how this administration

hasn't fully unleashed the DOJ on Trump, and the 1/6 scum.

[womanofthehills]

63. It might be the division many are feeling

Even though Biden has been passing good bills, those bills do not directly effect most people’s lives. People lost loved ones to covid, many are fearful of catching it, lots of fighting with family and friends over masks, vaccines, closings of businesses. Families and friends no longer speaking to each other. huge divisions going on. Most are not thinking about roads or Afghanistan. What upsets many of my young family & friends is a yr ago they could have bought a house but now real estate prices are off the wall from all the corporations buying up all the houses & apt buildings. The American dream of owning your own house - not happening for many. I have four family members who live in apts in Albuquerque. All said their apts were bought by new owners and all their rents are going up. This has become the norm where most of a persons pay check goes to rent. I think more policies directly impacting people’s lives would help his numbers - like education help, student loan forgiveness more help for first time house buyers. What’s with we are finally getting a half decent SS raise - only to then find out half of it will be gobbled up by Medicare?? All this is scary and if the Republicans win next time it will be worse but the average person does not pay much attention to politics.

[GoodRaisin]

69. Response no. 15 is your answer.

Just to add perspective, the fascist ownerships of the networks pushed this falsehood to destroy the very favorable ratings Biden had at the time which they feared might persist in the lead up to the 2022 election. Then they fed those Afghanistan lies with everyday reminders in their reporting “how unpopular Joe Biden is in his approval polls” just to keep driving his numbers down further and further so that no matter what anyone polled was asked about, that they would have an unfavorable opinion because they see every day snippets from the media on “how bad” he is. So, would be poll responders would rate him “bad” in things they can’t even begin to understand - because the media knows they are ignorant and stupid - and will swallow up any lie the media pushes if properly sensationalized.

It’s basically whatever the media says is how it is. Take Afghanistan for example. In years leading up to the withdrawal, just about every poll you would see would have about 80%+ support for getting out of Afghanistan, Republican and Democratic voters alike. All of a sudden, the media flipped the propaganda switch to destroy a popular new president who was doing things for the people, by focusing it’s theme on the “horrors of the withdrawal” and blamed Biden for all of it, calling him “incompetent” and “insensitive to the victims of HIS bad withdrawal”, non-stop, for days and days until his support and the support for getting out of Afghanistan fell off the cliff. Media mission accomplished.

Unfortunately, Democrats have no effective forum in which to push back and protect themselves from these lies and fascist propaganda. So, a President who has been pretty great gets bad polling numbers.

[Takket]

71. a lot will come back once the agenda they voted for is delivered

infrastructure is passed.

BBB is next. once that, hopefully, gets through somehow, his numbers will be back in the 50s

don't discount the fact the media is saying everything is horrible right now for his low numbers either.

[brooklynite]

74. Answer: they didn't all vote FOR Biden...

...Republican and Independent moderates voted AGAINST Trump (and then voted Republican down ticket).