OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
NBC anchor Chuck Todd is warning Joe Biden that he’s in trouble with voters following the release of a new poll last week showing dismal approval ratings to kick off the midterm election year.
During the opening segment on “Meet the Press,” Todd cited an NBC poll and declared Biden’s 43% approval rating showed he’d “lost his identity,” and was “no longer seen as competent and effective” in the eyes of voters, spelling a potential “shellacking” for Democrats in November.
“President Biden’s news conference on Wednesday was designed to kick off a second-year reset of his presidency, recapture his political identity if you will, but our new NBC News poll suggests Mr. Biden does need a reset because he’s lost his identity a bit,” Todd began.
“He’s no longer seen as competent and effective, he’s no longer seen as a good commander in chief or — perhaps most — as easygoing and likable. In fact, just 5 percent of adults say Mr. Biden has performed better than expected as president — one of the many lowest, firsts, and fewest in our poll. And as we kick off our ‘Meet the Midterms’ coverage heading into November, the NBC News political unit developed what we’re calling a ‘Midterm Meter,’” he added.
“It’s based on previous election cycles and it’s basically three poll numbers you need to know best. I’m going to start with perhaps the most important number to understand the direction of the midterms, it’s job approval here, the President’s job approval rating sitting at 43%. If you look at history, history shows that kind of presidential approval rating leads to a shellacking for the party in power. How about the mood of the nation? Let me show you this,” he said.
“Right now our wrong track, ‘nation is on the wrong track’ number sitting at 72% — second poll in a row where we’ve been over 70%. This is only the third time in our poll’s history over 30 years where we’ve had two tracks that off. That again would put you in shellacking territory for the party in power,” Todd concluded.
WATCH:
Nearly every week a new poll seems to show more Americans have jumped off the Biden bandwagon. The latest from Quinnipiac is no exception.
While the survey covered a slew of topics, the first question measured Joe Biden’s overall performance.
Just 33% of respondents thought he was doing a good job, compared to 53% who did not. Only a mere 25% showed their support for Biden.
The poll showed 43% of participants favor Republicans retaking the House in November while 42% prefer the Democrats. When it comes to the Senate, 45% support the GOP while 41% back Democrats.
Another question asked respondents if they believe Biden “is doing a better job as president than you expected, a worse job, or about what you expected?”
A paltry 7% indicated the president is exceeding expectations, while 39% said he was doing worse than anticipated. About 50% said Biden is performing as they had predicted.
Biden did not fare well on a question about how he is handling the economy, either. A little over a third (34%) of participants approved of Biden’s economic policy, while 57% disapproved.
The president did a little better when respondents were asked whether he had failed to unite the country as he promised on the 2020 campaign trail. About 42% of respondents believe he is uniting the country, but 49% felt he was doing more to divide. This includes 50% of Independents.
Lastly, the survey asked participants if they “expect political divisions in the country to ease, to worsen, or to remain about the same?” The results were disturbing but none too shocking.
Quinnipiac found that 15% believe divisions will “ease” while 28% indicated they would stay the same. A solid 53% predicted the country would become even more divided.
