Whatever boost the Nov. 7 election results may have given Joe Biden's presidential campaign has faded as rapidly as the autumn sunshine.
The blows came from different angles, but all landed solidly. Among them: polling data from the Financial Times and the University of Michigan's business school at a paltry 14 percent of respondents think they are better off now than they were before Biden took office in January 2021.
If those of us of a certain age hear echoes of Ronald Reagan's famous 1980 debate question along those same lines…the one that sank Jimmy Carter's re-election bid…it's no accident.
That blow would be enough to send any incumbent's reelection team scrambling for a response. But as Politico noted, such scrambling has only uncovered more problems:
Despite expressing widespread support for Biden's policy agenda, few voters were aware he'd made much progress on any of a dozen-plus top priorities, like drug pricing or infrastructure.
Perhaps most alarming, 7 out of 10 people surveyed believed the economy wasn't getting better — even after they were explicitly told that inflation had eased and unemployment sat near record lows. That preface, designed specifically to persuade voters to brighten their view of the economy, did not seem to move them.
“When we intentionally put our finger on the scale, and 100 percent of people hear good economic indicators before saying if the economy's going well for them, we still get walloped,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.
There's a good reason for this. Inflation may be down from what it was a year ago, and unemployment numbers may be better, too.
But in the broad picture, prices people pay for goods and services are still high compared to what they were, well, four years ago (before the pandemic).
No amount of wheedling and cajoling will convince people that everything is great right now when they can vividly recall their outgo and income four years ago.
That doesn't mean Team Biden is fated to lose next November. A year is a very long time in politics. Economic conditions could continue to improve across the board, prices for basics could actually fall, rather than simply increase more slowly, and so on.
If voters in general feel better about their personal economic situation a year from now, then Biden's personal political outlook improves.
If the majority of voters don't feel they've gained ground – or at least stopped losing as much ground to inflation – then the GOP alternative looks better.
The major caveat though is that if Biden and Trump are the major party offerings a year from now, voters may have more profound issues to weigh than the price of milk.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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