The Biden Rebound That Wasn’t – Opinion

The latest jobs report was unexpected last week. Although the ADP survey indicated a decrease of 200,000 jobs in the survey, the official BLS survey revealed a net increase of 467,000 jobs. Clearly, given the White House’s prior conditioning of the public, not even they expected such a result.

Joe Biden made a triumph lap, as one might imagine. After all, it’s quite an accomplishment to burn down the jobs market with government intervention and then have it recover to a lesser level than when things started. Most of the recovery can be credited to President Barack Obama’s red states.

Sarcasm aside, though, that “good news” was reason enough for some to assert that Biden was primed for a rebound. Let’s check in on that, shall we?

RealClearPolitics Average of Polls: Biden Job approval drops below 40 percent https://t.co/68MeU1ximM pic.twitter.com/SBL7e1LOCQ

— Byron York (@ByronYork) February 9, 2022

Biden, far from claiming a quick comeback, continues to languish. His lowest RCP average point in over a decade is now. You should also note that all three of the polls taken since Biden’s jobs report were released are from last year. They show what? Approval at 41%, 40%, and 41%, respectively.

It’s the aggregate that’s really striking, though. While individual polls have shown Biden below 40 percent in the past, this is his first trip below that level in the average, and it’s a milestone worth talking about. This tells us much more than just about where Biden stands with the public right now, but also what his future plans are.

Things become almost baked-in at some point during a presidency. That’s not to say that a president at 46 percent approval can’t rise to 50 percent approval, but it is to say that large swings become increasingly unlikely the more polarized the electorate gets. That means that a “good” jobs report becomes a one-day news story that does little to change the political environment. That’s exactly what we are seeing with Biden.

Even though this seems ancient history, the Afghanistan disaster was the catalyst. The Afghanistan debacle was when the majority of Americans began to dislike Biden and lost faith in him as a person capable of doing the job. He also played an important role in his constant bouts with senility. By the time the president’s failures surrounding the pandemic became clear in the fall, the collapse was nearly complete.

This was when inflation struck. Instead of admitting his policies were failing, Biden only doubled down, blaming “Big Meat” and other faux bogeymen for rising prices. By the time January’s jobs numbers came out, most Americans were more than aware of the context behind them and weren’t primed to give the president much of any credit for burning down the house and only halfway rebuilding it.

All this is to suggest that Biden’s idea of rebounding from his defeat in the election is fantasy. It’s wish-casting based on the faulty premise that the American people are against the president simply because of circumstances that are out of his control. They are not against him, because their incompetent behavior has caused them great pain, especially in terms of their pockets as prices for gas and other commodities continue to rise. Yes, COVID-19 is likely to subside further, but that’s not going to be enough, and there will be recriminations of Democrat officials, including Biden, who worked so hard to make people miserable.

Biden’s party and the country are not going to see any positive change until the November elections. Red wave.