I hesitate to get excited about anything like this, but I’ll take anything I can get right now:
After what’s been a bleak several months politically for President Biden, a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey finds he is seeing a significant boost in his approval ratings across the board following his State of the Union address and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“This is an unusual bounce,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the poll. “It gets him back to where he was pre-Afghanistan.”
Here’s a look at some of the numbers:
Overall approval rating jumped to 47%, up 8 points from the NPR poll last month. Presidents don’t generally see much, if any bounce, out of a State of the Union address. Since 1978, there had only been six times when a president saw an approval rating improve 4 points or more following State of the Union addresses, according to the pollsters. Three of those bounces were for former President Bill Clinton.
Ukraine handling is up 18 points to 52%.
Coronavirus pandemic handling is now 55%, up 8 points.
Economic handling up 8 points to 45%.
Some of this is a rally around the flag reaction. Also I would guess that a lot of people weren’t really paying attention and just accepting the CW that Biden is a drooling old fool who can barely stand up. If they watched the speech they were undoubtedly reassured. Biden has shown steady, responsible leadership during this crisis and that counts for something and it does feel as if the pandemic is going to give us a break which is bound to make people feel better about everything.
Whatever the reasons, I’m glad to see it. Biden has been doing a fine job under difficult external circumstances and a batshit crazy opposition. He doesn’t deserve the lousy numbers he’s been getting.