It’s no secret that President Joe Biden is facing a rocky re-election campaign. With ever-evolving scandals and policies that seem designed to destroy America, the only ones supporting him are those who make a career of watching CNN from their mother’s basement. Ask most Americans how Biden’s economic policies are working for them, and they will show you empty bank accounts, tapped retirement accounts, and maxed credit cards.
Biden insists that the failing quality of life for Americans is because they haven’t felt the effects of his laughable “Bidenomics” plan – yet. He speaks as if Americans can afford to sit back and wait to enjoy all the wonders his economic policies will bring them in the future.
It’s a disconnect that is costing him in the polls. Biden has never known a day of want in his life, and, like all politicians, he can’t begin to understand the struggle of a family just trying to survive in the world he has created in just three years.
Still, his staunchest supporters stubbornly insist that the economy is strong. And if you don’t believe it, you are something just short of stupid. Jim Kessler, co-founder of Third Way, insists, “I’m baffled by seemingly smart political people writing his chances off.”
His allies insist he will somehow pull off a miracle because America continues to “underestimate him.” Polling suggests that the only thing being “underestimated” happening is how much harm the Biden administration can, and has, done to the nation.
Former Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) shrugs off Biden’s dismal poll numbers. “I think he’s made a life in politics of being underestimated. Everyone underestimated Joe Biden in 2020, and I think things have changed dramatically since then.”
Crowley and others point to a pivotal moment in 2020 when a sudden and unexpected win in South Carolina assured Biden of victory. Allies believe that an endorsement from Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) clinched the win. Critics have other ideas as to what may have happened behind the scenes in South Carolina.
But Crowley is correct. Things have certainly changed dramatically since Biden first took office. Democrats had the sweet taste of victory, and even some Trump-hating Republicans felt a glimmer of hope.
David Thomas, former aide to Vice President Al Gore, invites Americans to compare their lives with where they were four years ago. “If you ask the question in November: ‘Are you better off than you were four years ago?’ I believe a majority of Americans will answer a resounding yes.”
Thomas has an interesting view of what the word “majority” means. Poll after poll finds Americans longing for the good old days of 2020. A November poll by the Financial Times and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business found that 70% of respondents feel that Biden’s economic policies hurt them, including 33% who said his policies hurt them “a lot.”
Only 14% of those polled said they are better off under Biden.
Eighty-two percent of those polled said that the increasing prices of goods and services are causing them the most financial stress. About three-quarters of those surveyed also believe these rising prices are a significant threat to the US economy in the next six months. Although inflation has come down from its highest point, the latest numbers show that prices increased by 3.7% in September compared to last year, which is higher than what the Federal Reserve aims for.
And it’s important to note that the often quoted “lower inflation rates” are only “lower” compared with Biden’s first year in office when his policies caused consumer prices to soar almost overnight.
Those who believe Biden is “underestimated” continue to believe the economy will be an asset for him in the 2024 election. They also proudly boast of the consequences of their targeted, ongoing legal challenges, predicting that they have removed Biden’s most prominent political challenger from the equation.
Biden supporters think Biden is underestimated, but his challenges are self-created through his short-sighted policies. But Trump supporters have watched the former president fight and win against the Democrat machine repeatedly, managing to emerge victorious against every challenge.
Democrat strategist Simon Rosenberg gleefully points out the success of keeping Trump’s name in court, boasting that they have successfully painted Trump as “a dangerous political figure.”
“This notion that Trump is somehow strong and in a strong position to win the election, I think, is among the most ridiculous things that I’ve ever heard in all the years I’ve been in politics,” Rosenberg notes.
You would think Democrats would learn by now. If anyone is being underestimated, it’s Donald Trump.
