Festival Attendees in Nation’s Capital Issue Joe Biden a Report Card: It’s the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC when numerous trees display their beautiful white and pink blossoms. The warm spring weather brings thousands of natives to parks in Washington, along with abundant tourists who wish to see the blossoms. This allowed one conservative media outlet to gauge President Joe Biden’s support among the festival goers on April 1 and 2. The results weren’t pretty, as some people gave Biden failing grades on his job approval report card.
Fox News found one voter who gave Joe Biden a grade below ‘F.’
A woman named Brandy told Fox, “If there was one lower than F, we’d aim for that. I think we’re being mismanaged to a severe degree.” Brandy said that Biden acts like a “puppet” and that makes the United States look weak on the world stage.
Joe Biden Still Has Loyalists
But one man from the president’s home state of Delaware is well satisfied with Biden’s work. He gave the commander-in-chief an ‘A.’ “Biden inherited a terrible situation. He’s weaved through it quite well.”
Deficits and Debt Are High on the List of Concerns
Joe Biden received an ‘F’ from Kevin of Ohio. “As a country, we’re just getting farther in debt, and he’s just not helping out the situation.”
Here Is One Voter Who Thinks Biden Is Doing Fairly Well
A woman from the District thought Biden was doing an above average job. “I think economically he has worked hard to limit the inflation,” she said. “Also, I think you can start to see the impact of the construction work and infrastructure investments.”
While these ratings are not part of a scientific survey, it gives one a sense of how some Americans are feeling about the Biden presidency. He is not getting credit for righting the ship or bringing people together amid significant fault lines and division in the country.
More Scientific Polling Offers Bad News to Biden
Polling with a national representative sample backs up negative perceptions about Biden. An Associated Press/ NORC poll taken March 23 showed that Biden’s approval has dived to 38 percent, down from 45 percent since when the last survey was taken.
Joe Biden does better in an aggregation and average of multiple polls. Forty-three percent of people approve while 53 percent disapprove, according to FiveThirtyEight. It is the disapproval numbers that Biden should be worried about as he may have lost many voters who will continue to think Biden is doing a bad job.
A slice of the American people seems to be holding Biden responsible for inflation. Last summer inflation hit an all-time high and many poll respondents are still blaming the president for high prices even though the consumer price index has improved since then. The AP poll referenced above gave Biden only a 31 percent approval on the way Biden has handled the economy.
The high cost of living has frustrated people who are having trouble making ends meet. Even though the unemployment rate is historically low, some are taking second jobs and doing “side hustles” to meet their monthly expenses. Even people who are making over $100,000 a year are living paycheck to paycheck.
To tame high inflation, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates. This is another problem for those who are using their credit cards to get by. Average annual percentage rates on credit cards can be as high as 23 percent and cash advances often charge 30 percent APR. Higher interest rates means a new home purchase is out of reach for many who need a mortgage and current homeowners have seen equity in their homes go down as real estate prices dive. While the stock market has gone up this year with the S&P 500 rising 7.5 percent, people are still reeling from the prior year when 401k and IRA balances eroded because the S&P 500 lost around 20 percent. This makes people feel less wealthy.
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Joe Biden has also presided over bank failures that put a shock into savers and high levels of illegal immigration and narcotics trafficking at the Southern Border.
The president has ample time to improve these numbers as we are about a year and a half away from the next election in 2024. But he is losing the support of Independent voters who may not go back to him depending on who the Republican nominee is for president. Biden doesn’t need to panic but he may have to adjust messaging on the economy as many voters just aren’t responding to his stewardship of inflation and interest rates. The cherry blossom festival is a happy time in Washington, and he should have fewer angry voters and a better report card.
Author Expertise and Experience:
Serving as 19FortyFive’s Defense and National Security Editor, Dr. Brent M. Eastwood is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer. You can follow him on Twitter @BMEastwood. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Foreign Policy/ International Relations.
