Joe Biden over Donald Trump – MAYBE? The administration and campaign team of President Joe Biden may have something – albeit a small reason – to celebrate, as a new CNN poll shows that Biden barely beat out former president Trump among voters in New Hampshire.
While it is, again, too early say with any sort of definitiveness who will actually win the primaries for both primaries – much less who will take the presidency – the poll offers a glimmer of hope for the embattled Team Biden, which has seen a spate of bad news of late.
Poor polling numbers show both concerns among American voters in general who feel that Biden is too old to be president again and a growing rate of dissatisfaction with his job performance AND how the president’s eponymous economic program “Bidenomics” is playing out.
Then there’s the ongoing impeachment proceedings against the president in the House, and his son, Hunter Biden has been indicted on gun charges.
Still, it is noteworthy to mention that folks in New Hampshire – 6 out of 10, or 62% — say that they definitely do not want another Trump presidency.
Many of these people, or 56% to be more exact, said that they would be downright angry with another Trump-run White House.
In Biden’s case, 56% of the respondents to the poll said that they would be dissatisfied or worse if Joe Biden managed to secure a second term. What’s more, fewer people said they’d be angry about it – 38%.
Joe Biden: New news, old news, bad news
It and of itself the poll is good news. But looking at the bigger picture, the more important point the poll drives home is that at best, people MIGHT be slightly more okay with Joe Biden over Donald Trump running the country from the White House after the elections next year. It almost feels like America is settling for mediocrity because, apparently, no one else – especially among the Democrats – seems to want the job.
In terms of dissatisfaction across America, Trump and Biden are more or less tied, and a majority of Americans aren’t happy with either choice. The latest numbers from poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight show a 54% disapproval rate for Biden (and a 40.8% approval rate), while 55.3% of Americans say they disapprove of Trump (while 41.4% approval). Hardly glowing endorsements for either second-term presidential wannabes.
Another poll released this month – this time from Reuters/Ipsos, each had Biden and Trump getting 39% of votes with the majority of the remainder saying they were undecided. Again, a lukewarm – at best – reception for both candidates.
Is there hope? Maybe.
Joe Biden is primarily banking on the hope that American voters will finally get tired of Trump’s tirades and maybe at least think that there might be something in those many lawsuits and indictments against him to feel that Trump just might not be the best person to be in the White House.
And with Biden being 82 if he does win the presidency, with a vice president nobody can seem to get behind, continuing economic struggles by regular, hard-working Americans; and all the bad rep and blowback he’s getting from his son Hunter’s shady business deals, that’s a whole lot of maybes.
Tim Ramos has written for various publications, corporations, and organizations – covering everything from finance, politics, travel, entertainment, and sports – in Asia and the U.S. for more than 10 years.
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