It looks as if Americans can handle having President Joe Biden leading the country. In fact, many like him quite well, and another significant number of people are finally coming around to what he is committed to doing for us. After the State of the Union address, the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey addressed brought welcome good news.
There were only six times a president saw an approval rating go up 4 points or more after a State of the Union address in the past half-century. Three of those bounces went to President Bill Clinton.
Director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion Lee Miringoff conducted the poll. And she noted this about President Joe Biden:
‘This is an unusual bounce. It gets him back to where he was pre-Afghanistan.’
- ‘Overall approval rating up eight points this month (47 percent)
- His handling of Ukraine (up 18 points to 52 percent)
- Handling the Coronavirus pandemic now (55 percent, up 8 points)
- His handling of the economy (up 8 points to 45 percent).’
Democrats and Independents are primarily responsible for the leaps in numbers. Take Ukraine. President Joe Biden’s approval rating soared 27 points with Democrats alone. But Independents came in with a 17-point hike.
- ‘A full 83 percent of people who took the poll said they approved of economic sanctions against Russia.
- A full 69 percent said they would still do so regardless of whether gas prices increased. That broke down to “four-in-five Democrats and six in 10 of Republicans.”‘
From the beginning, Biden has warned that Americans will pay more for gas due to inflation and now due to Russian Vladimir Putin’s invasion and resulting sanctions:
‘While his rating on the economy, for example, has improved, a majority (53%) still disapprove of how he’s handling it, and a slim majority (51%) think his foreign policy decisions overall have weakened America’s standing on the world stage.’
And Americans have various concerns about the escalating crisis in Ukraine:
- ‘Cyberattacks: Very concerned or concerned about (four-in-five )
- Worried about nuclear weapons use: (Seven-in-10)
- Biden’s approach about right: (46 percent)
- Biden’s approach too cautious: (43 percent)
- Too aggressive: (six percent)’
Overall, though, it looks as if the president’s State of the Union address appears to have helped him. During that speech, Biden tried to strike a balance between his base and. the significantly named Independents. His numbers there have been going down recently.
Miringoff added:
‘There is a fine line, but the bottom line is Democrats came home and the nation — on the whole war in Ukraine — people are behind him.’
CNN conducted a similar poll measuring points before and immediately after President Biden’s speech.
Three White Lions is Gloria Christie’s new serialized book available in episodes on Amazon. Go to Kindle Vella and insert her name. She also writes for the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
