Black voters’ support for Biden has cooled, poll finds Black voters overwhelmingly support Democrats and still back Biden more than other groups. But that support has fallen, and fewer say the election matters than in 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/04/biden-black-voters-softer-support/ excerpt: . . . roughly 9 in 10 Black voters supported Biden in the 2020 election, but a Washington Post-Ipsos poll of more than 1,200 Black Americans this spring finds what appears to be diminishing support: 7 in 10 approve of President Biden’s job performance, and fewer than one quarter “strongly approve.” A 60 percent majority of Black Americans say Biden is keeping most of his major campaign promises, but 37 percent say he is not. Writ large, the poll shows much stronger support for Biden in the Black community than among most others groups. But that support is growing less intense among this loyal constituency heading into the midterm elections, and younger Black Americans are significantly less enthusiastic about the president than older ones. Black registered voters still overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates in the midterms, according to the poll, but they are less likely to say the election matters to them than they did before the Biden-Trump contest, and fewer say they are certain to vote. more at the link
Opinion | Biden’s Speech Shows He Still Hasn’t Embraced the Presidency His call to curb gun violence was more fit for Democratic primary voters than Republican senators. https://www.politico.com/news/magaz...-joe-isnt-persuading-anybody-on-guns-00037006 excerpt: The downside of the speech was greater. It’s hard to imagine that any of the gun rights faithful were swayed by Biden’s talk, as he provided no new argument for the cause of gun control, and aside from the recent examples of gun massacres, no new compelling data. As a veteran horse-trader from his years in the Senate, Biden knows all about high-stakes compromise, negotiation and persuasion. If the speech contained a persuasive lesson about gun control, it must have been written in code. Although Biden directed his comments primarily to the citizenry, he also appealed to members of the Senate Republican minority — the people he must reach in order to pass such new, politically ambitious measures. But nothing in his call to action showed the slightest promise of moving them; it provided them no political reward for switching. Biden neither menaced the Republican senators with threats nor caressed them with promises or compromises that might have split off a Republican supporter or two. Unless you are already one of Pastor Biden’s congregants, his words, his expression of sorrow and his emotional pleading came across as the usual Democratic Party white noise. Filled with good intentions that he drove into a semantic dead end, Biden sounded like a bad Aaron Sorkin speech. Why did he even bother with his address? Like many presidents before him, Biden has yet to complete the transformation from being a presidential candidate — a status he has enjoyed off and on since announcing his first campaign 35 years ago — to president of the United States. You would think that after being president for 17 months, he might have learned the difference, but no. During the first months of caucuses and primaries, a presidential campaigner speaks almost exclusively to members of his own tribe, telling them what they want to hear and never deviating too far from the party’s orthodox positions. Once nominated, the candidate has more leeway. Not every speech should be a sermon, because independents and political strays find such language off-putting. What’s more likely to move them to support a candidate is the persuasion contained in a lesson and the logic of a winning argument. If a candidate is lucky enough to win the White House and he doesn’t command overwhelming majorities in the House and the Senate to do his bidding, he must refine his powers of persuasion and sometimes coercion to bend members of the opposition. No matter where you stand on gun control, it’s easy to criticize the tenor and flatness of Biden’s prime-time appeal, which sometimes better resembled a political tantrum than an appeal to reason. At eight points in his 16-minute address, Biden implored the nation to “do something” about the gun problem. Twelve times he pleaded, “Enough!” Rhetorical incantations like this sometimes do magic on the campaign trail, but they rarely do much to shape public opinion, let alone action on Capitol Hill. more at the link
Biden wants to get out more, seething that his standing is now worse than Trump’s Frustrations are mounting and the window for a political revival is closing. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/...is-standing-is-now-worse-than-trumps-00037278 excerpt: But much of what the White House can accomplish is only around the edges. Biden has sounded the alarm about the potential overturn of Roe v. Wade and continues to push Congress to act on guns in the wake of the mass shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Uvalde, Texas. But he also signaled in his Thursday evening speech that he knows that Congress, at most, will pass small measures on firearms that will leave much of his party dissatisfied. And while Biden has received high marks — even from some Republicans — for holding together an alliance to stand up to Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine, voters this fall will likely care far more about some of the war’s aftershocks: its further strain on supply chains has only added to rising inflation and, most painfully for the White House, soaring gas prices. For nearly a month, Biden and his inner circle have agonized over whether to make a trip to Saudi Arabia, a nation the president deemed a “pariah” after its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, ordered the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Biden, for a time, angrily rejected meeting with the crown prince, arguing the presidency “should stand for something,” according to two people with knowledge of his thinking. But he has recently relented, recognizing a need to push Riyadh for more oil production. Still, the dates for the trip remain fluid, leaving some aides to wonder if the president will change his mind again. Biden’s inner circle is well aware of recent presidential precedent. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both overcame a rough first midterms only to benefit from economic turnarounds and cruise to reelection. But George H.W. Bush and, especially, Carter were felled by shaky economies and rising inflation. “[Carter] lost because of inflation and bad feelings about the economy and a sense that America was flailing and Biden is finding now that it’s hard to be a leader when other things are unraveling,” said Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian at Rice University. “He can’t just be a mourner-in-chief, he can’t just play defense. He needs to be on offense and convince Americans that, despite the challenges, better days are ahead.” more at the link
how low can you go Economic issues top the public's agenda: POLL Only of 37% of Americans approve of Biden's handling of the economic recovery. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/economic-issues-top-publics-agenda-poll/story?id=85183412
Had dinner with some friends from the UK last night, they are very impressed with what Biden has done. Good to see our respect around the world is coming back after that disaster of the Orange Con man. RE: The economy - blaming the president is what stupid people do, because they are too ignorant to know how the economy works or the forces behind it. Not surprised though. DD
This doesn't change the fact that many people attribute economic success to presidents. It's why Trump was obsessed with the stock market, why Biden is struggling now, partly why Obama defeated McCain in 2008, "It's the economy, stupid," etc. President Biden is in a bad spot right now because of inflation and gas prices, regardless of how incorrect it is to lay blame for all of those things at the feet of the president.
When the previous president started a trade war with China, killed NAFTA, decreased our immigrant farming/manufacturing workforce, all while fostering a culture vaccine hesitancy (even though he took it himself) thereby resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths with more lockdowns. ...and then folks wonder why a few years later we have high inflation? Inflation isn't Joe Biden's fault. Some may argue, well Biden didn't help matters. Mmmkay, my kid charging $3 for lemonade didn't help things eithers ...but that's hardly a root cause. Biden's tax policy is easy fodder for the weak minded but he didn't create this mess in under 2 years.
I completely agree with you. However we live in a country 74M people voted for Donald Trump to have a second term. Our capacity to think deeply isn't very strong.
I disagree that our capacity to think deeply isn't strong. At least, ability to think hasn't fundamentally changed in the past 20,000 years or so. Overall, our ability to think created mass production and the internet. What HAS changed in the past 20 years is algorithmically selected content designed to keep you clicking and viewing where otherwise intelligent people never see opposing points of view. It's too simplistic to blame regular people. We are being manipulated.
Senators want Biden to stay out of gun talks https://thehill.com/news/administration/3513713-senators-want-biden-to-stay-out-of-gun-talks/ excerpt: Some have said that President Biden’s involvement wouldn’t be “helpful” after he called on Congress to pass gun control measures, some of which aren’t even supported by all 50 Democrats. The White House spent much of last week going back and forth about how much involvement, if any, the administration would have in the talks, eventually settling on messaging that the president would give Congress space to negotiate. Then an about-face came on Thursday when Biden gave a prime-time speech calling on Congress to pass a host of measures that lawmakers say are not part of the negotiations, resulting in some head-scratching over the direction the White House was heading on the matter. Sen. Chris Murphy (Conn.), the lead Democratic negotiator on gun violence talks, indicated that although he has been in communication with the White House about the negotiations, even Democrats on Capitol Hill think discussions have a better chance of bearing fruit without the involvement of the president or his team. “I think the Senate needs to do this ourselves,” Murphy said on CNN on Sunday. “I have talked to the White House every single day since these negotiations began. But right now, the Senate needs to handle these negotiations.” more at the link
Democrats frustrated by flat-footed White House https://thehill.com/news/administration/3515229-democrats-frustrated-by-flat-footed-white-house/ excerpt: “It’s really simple: ‘Be the f—ing president!,” said one Democratic strategist frustrated by the administration. “I realize it’s tough and you’re drinking out of a fire hose every single day, but there are things you can do to control the public perception and they haven’t done any of that.” Democratic strategist Christy Setzer said the White House has shown some naivete in recent months in trying to control the message. “It may come down to not understanding what they’re up against — both the media environment and today’s GOP,” Setzer said. “Biden did speak out on guns, on baby formula, on inflation … but the traditional tactics aren’t breaking through, and it doesn’t seem as though they’re taking in that information, re-trenching, and trying new approaches when it’s falling flat.” more at the link
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/15/bid...or-oil-and-gas-drilling-on-federal-lands.html https://en.as.com/en/2022/03/29/latest_news/1648510535_730791.html Doesn't look like it Biden and OS receive 4 pinocchios
lol WaPo: Even Biden's not buying Biden's gas-price strategy https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/202...-not-buying-bidens-gas-price-strategy-n475766 excerpt: Unfortunately, Biden doesn’t have any other ideas: Biden and his aides have also taken to attacking Republicans more vigorously, focusing especially on a proposal published by Republican Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) that Democrats argue would make things worse by raising taxes on many Americans. But the messaging push has not yielded any new direct measures to lower costs. The easiest options would be for Biden to rescind his EO 13990 to remove the obstacles to exploration, extraction, and refining that he himself created. A tax package to incentivize refinery construction and exploration investment would work wonders in getting those efforts back on track. Those moves might trigger a sharp response in futures markets too, which could have an immediate impact on gas prices. However, Biden’s too married to the radical-environmental movement to do any of these, so he’s settling for the embarrassing option of going hat in hand to the “pariah state” Saudi Arabia to pull an Oliver Twist and plead for more fuel: The White House has said Biden feels that the crown prince is a “pariah” for his role in the killing of a political opponent, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in Turkey in 2018. Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul tainted the crown prince’s image as a reformist. The Saudi government has denied any involvement by him. The visit would be aimed at bolstering relations with Saudi Arabia at a time when Biden is trying to find ways to lower gasoline prices in the United States. more at the link
