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Washington Post columnist Perry Bacon Jr. suggested Tuesday that President Biden wouldn’t be so unpopular among Democrats if it weren’t for inflation, adding that estimates show half of the president’s negative approval rating is caused by inflation.
Bacon wrote that after speaking with pollsters and other political experts, “the strong consensus was that if inflation were at normal levels and not constantly in the news, Biden’s approval rating would likely be between 41 and 45 percent, with his disapproval number between 51 and 54 percent.”
He said the ratings would be close to former President Donald Trump’s numbers. He would also “be behind Bill Clinton (46-45) and Barack Obama at this point (47-47); and well behind George W. Bush (70-23),” Bacon wrote.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during an event marking the passage of the Safer Communities Act on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., July 11, 2022. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarck/File Photo)
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The Washington Post columnist said that while inflation has certainly made things worse for the president, Biden will still be “more unpopular than popular.” Some pundits told Bacon that the president’s approval rating would be in the 50s if inflation were 2 percent.
One political analyst, Will Stancil, argues that “it is a mistake to assume that the president’s approval rating is always tied to inflation or other economic indicators.” Stancil said Trump was unpopular during a strong economy and told Bacon that the media was to blame for his unpopularity.
“According to Stancil, Biden’s unpopularity stems in part from an intense, negative media focus on inflation affecting the public. So according to Stancil, Biden could be just as unpopular with low inflation if the media criticized him on other issues, or more popular with high inflation if the media didn’t cover him as much,” Bacon wrote.
President Joe Biden waves as he leaves after attending Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semanski)
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A New York Times poll showed Monday that 64 percent of Democrats would prefer a different candidate in 2024.
Bacon wrote that Biden doesn’t look so bad “from an electoral standpoint,” taking into account high inflation. He also suggested that inflation would be high under a different Democratic president.
“If Biden is unpopular in part because of the high inflation that would likely occur under another Democratic president, the case that Biden is an anchor of the party becomes weaker,” the author wrote.
He also said the president’s administration was a “policy failure” but added that he was not as “bad a politician or a potential 2024 presidential candidate as the polls are making him out to be right now.”
US President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the Royal Castle, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland, March 26, 2022. Slawomir Kaminski /Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE IS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. POLAND OUT. NO SALES IN POLAND FOR COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES.
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Inflation rose 9.1% in June from a year earlier, hitting a new 40-year high.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president plans to run again in 2024, despite growing calls from his own party to step down.
Hannah Panrek is an associate editor at Fox News.
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