Meanwhile, Ruy Teixeira sees President Biden’s bad polling numbers and interprets them quite differently. Rather than focusing on independent voters he advises President Biden that without working class voters his re-election is doomed and that to woo back the working class the president needs to stop emphasizing character, biography, or background in favor of this strategy from Blueprint:
Blueprint’s latest survey, conducted in partnership with The Liberal Patriot, showed that many of the policies that are most popular with voters can be used to make the case that Biden is the candidate for average Americans while Trump is the candidate who advocates for the interests of the very rich. Among the 40 policies we tested, the most popular ones are those that crack down on corporations, lower the prices of health care and other things, and protect Medicare and Social Security.
Just as the most effective tax and economic policy messages in the poll centered on those topics, none of these stances are particularly sexy or novel; instead, they are positions that are easy to imagine any Democrat supporting over the last decade. Trump has many qualities and vulnerabilities that make him distinct from run-of-the-mill Republicans of the past and present, which are tempting to focus on in paid and earned media. But our polling shows that ahead of November, Biden would be wise to highlight boring-but-popular policy distinctions that he supports in order to drive home the overall contrast between himself and Trump on tax policy and economic fairness.
Will President Biden and his campaign heed that advice? I’m skeptical. I think that for the next six months we’ll see a flood of negative advertising, emphasizing how terrible Trump is.
“Among the 40 policies we tested, the most popular ones are those that crack down on corporations, lower the prices of health care and other things, and protect Medicare and Social Security.”
Shorter: your problems are due to greedy corporations, not government policy, and certainly not my policies; oh, and free beer for everyone!!
I was just musing. Are American voters just Charlie Browns, willing to have Lucy pull the football every time? Appears so. Politicians, particularly Democrats, have been promising to fix all the voters ills for 100 years………..if you just vote for me this coming election.
The people getting rich are politicians, the people who buy them off and tilt government their way, and the lobbyists/academics/Wall Street and Large Corporate/race baiters/global warming hoaxers etc who feed at the trough.
Will the voter eventually wake up? Not sure. Hasn’t really happened in my lifetime. And, directionally, we are headed towards less self reliance and more “please Mr Politician” please take care of me and make it all good. Eloi.
I suspect it will be a combination of negative ads and ads addressing the stuff above. I have already seen ads noting the cost fo insulin change and the Medicare drug costs plan. I believe there was an ad noting that Trump promised a lot of stuff like FoxCon in Wisconsin that never actually happened, but Republicans believe it did, while pointing to the new semiconductor plants that are actually being built.
Steve
It’s beginning to feel a lot like 2016 to me. Democrats and the Biden campaign are seemingly betting on the idea that Biden’s unpopularity will be overcome by Trump’s unpopularity because it’s so clearly obvious to them that Trump is so much worse than Biden and all it will take is more exposure to Trump’s craziness. That might work if Biden weren’t the most unpopular incumbent President in the history of Presidential polling.
I am honestly surprised that Biden’s popularity remains as bad as it is. I remember the late 70’s early 80’s inflation enough to know how unpopular it is, but things have improved, a lot of the economy is good and his numbers haven’t moved at all. I don’t expect the hosannas that Democrats think he deserves, but I would think there would be some positive movement and there’s nothing. It’s weird.
Weird is that our current president doesn’t even communicate with the American people. No fireside chats, no “crisis of confidence “ pep rally, few press conference’s, it’s just becoming clear that Joe’s just not up to it.
Pretty much clear he’s sleeping days like our own grandparents did.
He ain’t there.
Andy.
Lets review the record.
Biden came to office (and largely won office) by stating Trump catastrophically mismanaged COVID and he would do better.
There ended more people dying of COVID in Biden’s first year compared to Trump’s last year. Despite Biden having a vaccine. On top of that, he also tried impose a vaccine mandate via administrative law. And he didn’t solve COVID, it burned out because Omicron infectiousness caused everyone to get it.
Shortages, there’s weren’t lines at gas stations. But remember baby formula? That was fun for any parent who had to live through it.
Inflation, as a point of reference, has averaged 5.7% per year during Biden’s term so far. From Eisenhower, by Presidential terms, only Carter, Ford, Nixon have equaled or done worse. And for all of Biden and the Fed saying its gotten better, inflation is stable at 3.5% — which is 75% higher than the 2% that used to be the ceiling (and actually wasn’t reached during the whole 2010’s).