The days remaining for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration are few, but before they go, it's only fair to ask Americans what kind of job the pair did over the last four tumultuous years. As it turns out, data from the latest I&I/TIPP Poll suggest, voters will not be sad to see this Democratic tenure come to an end.
The national online poll of 1.424 adults, taken Jan. 8-Jan. 10, asked a number of questions to get at how voters feel about the job Biden has done, including questions on how Biden did in particular policy areas. The poll's margin of error is +/-2.6 percentage points.
Apart from Democrats, Biden finds little support anywhere across the nation.
The first broad question posed involved leadership: "Overall, is your opinion of Joe Biden generally favorable, generally unfavorable, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?"
Biden doesn't come out well in the reckoning. Of those surveyed, just 38% give him a "favorable" rating, while 51% rated him "unfavorable" and another 7% said they didn't know enough to render an opinion.
But, when gauged by political party affiliation, Americans were far apart.
Democrats handed Biden high ratings (71% favorable, 17% unfavorable), while Republicans slammed Biden (15% favorable, 81% unfavorable) and independent voters more or less followed suit (26% favorable, 59% unfavorable).
He got below-50% responses from 33 of the 36 demographic groups I&I/TIPP tabulates each month. Only Democrats (see above), African-Americans (53% favorable) and self-described liberals (69% favorable) gave Biden generally positive ratings. No other groups did, a damning result for a president and a party that long claimed broad rank-and-file voter appeal.
Next, I&I/TIPP asked a closely related, but slightly different, question: "In general, do you approve or disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president, or are you not familiar enough to say one way or the other?"
Once again, Biden's ratings are nothing to crow about. Only 36% said they held a favorable view of the job he did as president. That compares with the 51% who held unfavorable views of Biden, and the 8% who didn't feel they knew enough to answer.
And the political gap again was stark. Democrats (70% approve, 16% disapprove) were the only political grouping that favored Biden; Republicans (11% approve, 83% disapprove) and Independents (26% approve, 58% disapprove) were far apart.
What about leadership, the sine qua non of a successful presidency?
Again, Biden flunks. I&I/TIPP asked those who took the poll to answer the following question: "How would you describe the leadership that President Biden is providing for the country?"
Possible answers included "very strong," "strong," "moderate," "weak," "very weak," and "not sure."
Overall, just 26% responded that Biden's leadership had either been very strong (14%) or strong (12%), while 50% called his leadership either weak (16%) or very weak (34%). Some 20% answered moderate.
While 52% of Democrats called his leadership strong or very strong, 14%, or nearly one in seven, Democrat voters, called his tenure weak.
The question is, given the media's counter-narrative about the Biden era, why do voters feel so differently about his four years?
For a presidential administration, it's all about actual policies. To paraphrase an old TV commercial, that's "where the rubber meets the road." So how do Americans feel about what Biden actually did in the policy arena?
To find out, I&I/TIPP asked those taking the poll to grade the president on how he handled different broad issues he faced. The grades assigned are the public school standards: A=excellent, B=good, C=average, D=poor, and F=unacceptable.
Here the deep dissatisfaction with Biden shines through. On average, on each of the 12 policy areas, Biden received failing marks over As and Bs by a 2-to-1 ratio. In short, he flunks.
On handling the economy the A or B grades (Good) totaled 26%, while the D (Poor) grades totaled 51%.
The pattern was repeated on virtually every issue listed (see chart below): "Israel-Hamas conflict" 18% Good, 50% Poor; the "immigration, border situation" 21% Good to 54% Poor; "spending and taxes," 24% Good to 49% Poor; "China" 23% Good to 44% Poor; "Iran" 19% Good to 47% Poor; "Russia" 22% Good to 47% Poor; "Russia-Ukraine war" 25% Good to 46% Poor; "North Korea" 22% Good to 44% Poor; "violence and crime in the U.S." 24% Good to 50% Poor; "antisemitism, or prejudice against Jewish people" 25% Good to 41% Poor; and, finally, an an "overall performance as president so far" grade of 27% Good to 49% Poor.
To say Biden's time in the Oval Office is viewed by most Americans as a disastrous presidency is no exaggeration. It would be hard to find another president who so comprehensively failed in key policy areas in the eyes of voters.
And these bad grades are for specific policy issues, as noted, not for other factors that have also seriously hurt Biden's presidential reputation.
These include such things as the Big Media and Democratic Party's efforts to downplay Biden's obvious age-related mental decline, the socially-damaging COVID lockdowns, the 20% jump in overall inflation, an 18% surge in homelessness over the last year, Biden's alleged corruption in taking millions of dollars from foreign sources and pardoning his own son for crimes he committed, and an under-reported surge in in crimes by illegal immigrants crossing largely unprotected borders.
Biden has been a disaster for Democrats, but an unexpected bonus for Donald Trump and a newly revived Republican Party. In the recent election, the GOP made inroads in traditionally Democratic demographic groups, including Hispanics, Asians, and African Americans.
Dissatisfaction with Biden in specific and Democratic policies in general has led to a significant political realignment in the U.S., with Republicans broadening their base voters among key minority groups while also making strong inroads with working class voters who have typically supported Democratic candidates.
Biden's weaknesses both as a president and as a candidate (which led to his own party forcing him out of the presidential race) against Trump led to this sweeping political realignment.
Republicans went to bed on Nov. 5, election night, hoping Trump would squeak by. Instead, Trump swept to a resounding win over Vice President Kamala Harris, who carried Biden's failed legacy during her five-month long campaign. Now, as Biden prepares to the leave the political scene, for the first time in decades more Americans identify or lean Republican (48%) than Democrat (45%).
I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.
Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.
