joe biden vice president under barack obama

When you look at Biden’s numbers through the lens of the 2022 midterms, however, the forecast for Democrats’ prospects is increasingly bleak. On all three counts, he is not even close to having majority support for his current efforts. His disapproval rating was slightly better than some polls, but it was still poor. On the issue of the economy, Biden was down 8 points, 41 percent approve to 49 percent disapprove. But that pales in comparison to his job rating on inflation - at an abysmal 36 percent to 52 percent approve/disapprove. 22-24 Winning the Issues survey was 42 percent approve to 47 percent disapprove. Political leaders have to address the priorities of the electorate. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Biden is not just off message with Build Back Better, he’s off policy priorities and it’s showing in his numbers. For Donald Trump, it was focusing his message on immigration in 2018, instead of a growing economy and his policies behind it.īiden didn’t listen to the electorate then, and he’s not listening now. Like Obama, who decided to put health care first and the economy second, contrary to the public’s priorities, Biden has put Build Back Better first, only deviating when a crisis emerges - like the delta and now omicron variants - and finally at a distant third, the economy.

When presidents, in their first year, decide to ignore voters’ top priorities in favor of delivering their party base’s top priorities, they often pay the price in their first midterm election. For Bill Clinton, his Achilles’ heel, like Obama’s, was a push for health care instead of the economy. Still, Obama made the mistake so many leaders make. He believed, just as Democratic leaders believe today, that he and his party were given a mandate for every policy espoused during the election, and all deserved immediate and unquestioning passage. Obama was elected to fix the economy. But in November 2010, people simply did not see the success Biden had peddled in the months leading up to the election. Now, President Biden faces a similar situation today, but he is operating from a far weaker political position than Obama, who won the presidency by over 7 points with Democrats picking up eight Senate seats and 21 House seats. (This dismal streak would last, in total, for 30 months.) With unemployment still well over 9 percent, Biden, then vice president under Barack Obama, headed for the hustings in the months before the midterms to tout the “success” of their stimulus bill, passed the year before almost as an afterthought to the administration’s singular focus on the Affordable Care Act.Ĭontinuing high levels of unemployment may have had something to do with Biden’s public relations push that summer of 2010. On Election Day that year, despite Biden’s claims of progress over the summer, the country would see its 19th consecutive month of 9 percent unemployment or more.

But it feels like the summer of 2010 - Joe Biden’s “Summer of Recovery.” It’s déjà vu all over again. The leaves may be turning. Christmas is just around the corner.

Joe biden vice president under barack obama