Most US Democrats now think one term is enough for President Joe Biden, despite his stubborn intentions to be re-elected in 2024.
That’s according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which shows just 37 percent of Democrats say they want him to serve a second term, down from 52 percent in the weeks before last year’s midterm elections.
While Biden scored his victories on legislation and his ability to govern, the poll suggests that relatively few US citizens give him high marks on both. Follow-up interviews with poll participants indicate that many believe the 80-year-old’s age is a burden, with people focusing on his cough, In his walk, his slurred speech and the possibility that the most stressful job in the world would be better suited to someone younger. “I honestly think he would be too old,” said Sarah Oberman, 37, a Democrat who works in education in Raleigh, North Carolina. “We would prefer someone younger in the office of the president.” “.
When the president gives his State of the Nation address tomorrow (Tuesday), he has an opportunity to face fundamental doubts about his fitness to govern. Biden has previously leaned heavily on his record to say he is more than up to the task. When asked if he could handle the responsibilities of the office at his age, the president often responded as if he were willing to bet on it: “Look at me.”
Democratic candidates did better than expected in the 2022 midterm elections. The Democratic Party extended its control of the Senate by one seat and narrowly lost the majority in the House of Representatives even though history showed there would be a Republican wave.
Overall, 41% are satisfied with Biden’s performance as president, the poll shows, similar to ratings at the end of last year. Most Democrats are still happy with what Biden is doing as president, but their appetite for a re-election campaign has waned despite his electoral record. Only 22 percent of eligible voters say he should run again, down from 29 percent who said so before last year’s midterm elections.
The decline among Democrats who say Biden should run for president again appears to be concentrated among younger people. Among Democrats 45 and older, 49 percent say Biden should run again, nearly as much as the 58 percent who said so in October. But among those under 45, 23 percent now say he should run for re-election, up from 45 percent before the term.
Linda Lockwood, a Democrat and retiree from Kansas City, Kansas, said she wasn’t that concerned about Biden’s age. “He seems to be in pretty good shape in my opinion, and that’s coming from a 76-year-old woman,” Lockwood said. “You may be a little more careful going down the stairs as you get older, but if your brain is still working – that’s the important part.”
Already the oldest president in US history, Biden is frequently asked about his age, as he would be 86 if he completed eight full years as president. He often works late and stands for hours. However, he has been a national political figure for half Maa, after being first elected to the Delaware state Senate in 1972, and the moments when he appears lost on stage or stumbles in speeches can draw more attention than his policies.
Yesterday (Sunday), Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, 41, who sought to be the Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, admitted on CNN that “generational arguments can be powerful. The strongest argument of all is results,” Buttigieg said , “And you can’t argue – or at least I would say you can’t argue with a serious face – that it’s not a good thing that 12 million jobs were created under this president.”
Voters like Ross Truckey, a 35-year-old attorney in the state of Michigan, are watching the president warily. Truckey didn’t vote for Biden or Republican nominee Donald Trump in 2020. He feels like Biden was the latest in a line of “low” presidents. “His age, and maybe his mental acuity, are not where I would like the leader of the country to be,” Truckey said. “Sometimes he looks like an old man past his prime. Sometimes I feel a little sorry for the guy who gets pushed out in front of a crowd.”
Biden has repeatedly emphasized in speeches that it is essential for the public to know everything his administration is doing. That earned him four major legislative victories with coronavirus relief, the bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIP and Science Act, and tax and spending measures that help address climate change and improve the IRS’s ability to enforce the tax code and help taxpayers.
However, only 13% have a lot of confidence in Biden’s ability to achieve key policy goals, a possible reflection of the fact that he must now work with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives that wants to cut spending in exchange for removing the government’s statutory borrowing authority. The poll also shows that only 23 percent of US adults say they have a “great deal” of confidence that Biden will effectively run the White House. That’s down from 28 percent a year ago and remains significantly lower than 44 percent two years ago, just as Biden took office.
Only 21 percent have a lot of confidence in Biden’s ability to handle a crisis, down slightly from 26 percent last March. On working with Republicans in Congress and managing government spending, about half of US adults say they have almost no confidence in the president, and only about 1 in 10 say they have a lot of confidence.
Republican voters are unwilling to give Biden the benefit of the doubt, hurting his ratings. John Rodriguez, 76, supported Trump and assumed Biden was just doing the bidding of his aides. This creates a challenge for the president who promised to unite the country. “I believe he’s not the one making the decisions,” said Rodriguez, who lives in Cutler Bay, Florida. “He is a puppet who is told where to go and what to say.”
But the main obstacle for Biden may be voters like Vikram Jogalkar, 46, who works in the computer industry in Austin, Texas. He endorsed the president in 2020, only to sum up his feelings about Biden’s time in office as “nothing.” “The decision whether someone should run or not is not up to me,” Jogelkar said. “I don’t know who will be on the ballot, but I hope it will be someone better than his party.”