Has the Joe Biden Comeback Started? – Opinion

Joe Biden’s first year as a president has been one of the worst in American history. Yeah, Abraham Lincoln had the Civil War and George W. Bush had 9/11, but there’s a difference between events being forced on a president and a president causing events.

Biden somehow managed to screw up COVID’s response despite receiving vaccines at his inauguration. His watch saw more deaths than those under Trump. Then there are the foreign policy boondoggles, from Afghanistan to what’s currently happening with Russia. But if that wasn’t bad enough, Biden also turned the border into a humanitarian disaster. You get my point.

While things are not going well, could that be changing? That’s the assertion from CNN’s Chris Cillizza, who believes the president is at the beginning stages of a comeback.

This is Joe Biden’s comeback. https://t.co/JuElskHlr1

— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) March 4, 2022

I’d quote the article, but there’s really nothing groundbreaking in it. One NPR poll that shows President Biden at 47% approval and 51% disapproval supports the notion that Biden is back on track. No doubt, that’s a far better number than we’ve seen in the past. A week earlier, there were four consecutive polls that showed Biden’s approval rating at 38.38.41.38.38%.

We can still make comparisons apples to apples even though we’re only looking at the latest polls. While the NPR poll shows Biden as 47 percent approver with a -4 disapproval spread in its poll, two other polls (Reuters and Rasmussen) show him at 42 percent and 43 percent, respectively. These polls also show a very low disapproval rate with spreads between -13 and 11

Let’s not get into the data-nerdy stuff. Let’s take a closer look and assess whether the current political atmosphere is conducive to the President’s recovery. The gas prices have risen, Russia continues to invade Europe and the inflation rate is out of control. Biden’s public appearances also continue to be a disaster. A single outlier poll is hardly proof that he’s suddenly overcome those dynamics.

With that said, I will admit that it’s possible Biden gets a slight, temporary bump in the face of Russia’s aggression. However, the notion that President Obama is returning to the favor of the wider electorate seems a bit wishful. We’d need a lot more data points to even begin to entertain that thought. CNN’s rush to push that narrative is partisan, and that’s fine, but they should admit that’s all it is.