Biden’s approval
rating hit 39% for the month of December, and when compared to other former presidents, his is the lowest of the bunch. Former president Donald Trump’s rating was 45% in December of 2019, Barack Obama's was 43% in 2011, and George W. Bush's was 58% in 2003. But despite the low approval rating, the Biden administration isn’t willing to walk back on their “Bidenomics” policies because they’re afraid of looking “fraudulent”, said Peter Coffin, a journalist and author who spoke with
Sputnik’s The Final Countdown on Wednesday.
“It is a historic low for a modern sitting president at this point in their term,” said Coffin about Biden’s recent approval rating.
Biden’s lowest job approval rating was 37% which occurred three times, and was most recently recorded in November. Meanwhile, his average approval rating has lingered around 43% for his first term.
“A lot of unemployment numbers are considered somewhat inaccurate, like there are various polling firms that keep a real unemployment tally which is significantly higher than what’s reported,” added Coffin.
“Bidenomics, this brand that he’s brought up and tried to paint as this massive improvement for the country, doesn’t look very different from how it’s been,” he continued. “Just because inflation has slowed down doesn’t mean those prices have returned to the previous point. It means that rather than 9% inflation—which was our highest inflation rate during this whole thing—we’re down in the 3% range,” said Coffin. “That’s still prices going up as money becomes less valuable.”
“There’s a lot of people who would vote that are not in a great situation financially speaking, and they attribute that to the economy,” said Coffin.
A separate poll from November also found that 81% of registered voters in the US viewed the economy as either “fair” or “poor”.
“The way I see it, the economy has absolutely slowed. It’s maybe not what people are being told, but it doesn’t seem like—maybe for the finance guys it’s not—but it doesn’t seem like it’s actually speeding up to most people,” said Coffin.
Coffin was then asked how Biden expects to survive “$45 fried chicken” that was reportedly found on a restaurant menu in the US.
“I don't see how he really can, but I also, on the other hand, am not really so sure if they're going to be so quick to kick him off, because I don’t know if they look good when they change direction so quickly,” said Coffin, adding that the Democrats are most likely fearful of walking back on their Bidenomics plan because they don’t want to look fraudulent.
The
likelihood of Democrats having a “plan B” for Biden is slim to none. Not only is it difficult to run a political campaign against a sitting president, but Biden is still relatively popular among Democratic voters despite his single digit approval ratings among Republicans. And the deadline to enter one’s name on the primary ballot has already passed for many states.