Is is the polls or is it the people in this country? Because if this latest poll is in any way accurate, you need to pardon me while I rip out my hair and wonder what’s to become of this country. A new Washington-Post ABC poll shows Joe Biden, the man who took on Big Pharma, the man whose job reports stun month after month, the man to whom infrastructure is more than the punchline of a joke, polling seven points beneath the accused rapist/insurrectionist/election interferer/fraudster/liar, I could increase the list. Axios:
- 44% of U.S. adults polled said they’d definitely or probably vote for Trump vs. 38% for Biden. 12% were undecided.
- Biden’s approval hit a new low — 36%, down from 42% in February.
Why it matters: Biden’s re-election campaign is already trying “to shift voters’ focus away from their reservations about him and instead make the 2024 general election a choice rather than a referendum,” The Post notes.
On mental acuity, 94%of Republicans, 69% of independents and even 21% of Democrats said Biden lacks the sharpness to be president.
- “Just 32% overall think Biden has the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president, down steeply from 51% when he was running for president three years ago,” ABC’s Gary Langer notes.
- 54% think Trump has the needed mental sharpness.
On physical health needed to govern, just 33% think Biden, age 80, has it — vs. 64% for Trump, who’s 76.
- 58% of Democratic-leaning adults want to nominate someone besides Biden.
I am going to give you my theory on this. People in this day and age look at politics as a branch of entertainment and as a show. They judge politicians, not on their actual record but on their media presence. People like Ted Cruz know this. Cruz spends more time on his podcasts than he does governing.
The White House is now a soap opera. It was that way before Donald Trump went anywhere near it, but when he was in office it was one non-stop freak fest. The office of the president took a major credibility hit in those four years. It also got tremendous ratings and more books — filled with shocking anecdotes — were written about Trump and his administration than any other president in our history. All eyes were on D.C., as we watched the ship of state pitch to and fro, like a broken roller coaster car. We wondered from day one to the last day whether it would stay on the rails.
Along came Joe Biden to restore us to normalcy, and he did, but somehow, normalcy isn’t enough. He’s somehow expected to dazzle. Biden said during his campaign, “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.” The alternative, unfortunately, is not just an immoral idiot whose time in office was characterized by his own attorney general as “chaotic” and “a horror show,” the alternative is the loss of democracy itself.
Joe Biden has a laudable track record so far. He’s been very successful and if we were living in a sane world, he’d have Reaganesque approval ratings. The reason he does not is this: people are not looking at actual facts. They’re not absorbing actual achievements. They are looking at politics as a TV show and unfortunately, our star is 81 years old, and he makes gaffes from time to time. He slipped on Air Force One. He fell off his bike. And because we live in a show biz mentality, he is being judged on that, and not on his actual achievements while in office.
That’s grotesquely unfair, because in no other profession would that be the case. If he was a successful lawyer, who kept winning big cases, a renowned surgeon with a history of grateful patients, nobody would care about the occasional slip of the tongue or if he tripped on the garden hose. Why would they? If the guy’s getting great results, he’s doing the job he’s paid for. End of story.
But not in Washington. No, in Washington, it’s show time. It’s Hollywood. It’s entertainment. Donald Trump is as high profile as he is because he’s a freak show. He’s always been a freak show. The MAGAs love him for that. He’s the only politician in their lives who has ever made sense to them or ever said anything that they wanted to hear, because he spouts sheer gibberish all the time and they love it. These are not serious people — but they can enter a voting booth the same as you or me. And they are being conditioned by right-wing media to believe all manner of idiocy, unlike you and me.
Voting for a president has always been an emotional thing. People vote with their gut. But nowadays right-wing media has the guts of a certain percentage of people in a constant churn, not making rational, let alone informed, decisions, but reacting out of fear.
I can only conclude that the people answering this poll were not serious, or were influenced by right-wing media, because how can you even consider restoring a man to power when he tried to pull a coup d’etat on the government the first time he was in office? Let alone all the other illegal actions now being litigated?
Trump has only ever had one thing going for him, but it has been enough. He’s a television professional. He’s telegenic and he’s got a line of bull that provides great entertainment to the lowest common denominator in this country. He talks a great line of $hit. That’s his brand. Uncle Joe is also extremely likeable and plays well on TV, but he’s grounded in reality and getting results. Which serves to make this poll even more disturbing.
In a sane world, Donald Trump would be a social pariah at this point. He would be afraid to show his face outside of his Mar-a-Lago club. But no, he’s actually running for a third time and he’s actually polling seven points ahead of Joe Biden in a potential rematch.
Maybe this country is in self-destruct mode. I don’t know. What I do know is that the frenzy of the Trump years were an adrenaline rush for all of us. The dividing line between the two camps was whether you were elated or horrified. But we were all supercharged. And somehow, if this poll is correct, people want to return to that age of living on the edge. For some reason. It beats the hell out of me.
How have our standards lowered to this level? I can only credit television, for reducing our governmental processes to a soap opera. We are in the process of Amusing Ourselves To Death, to cite the title of the book by Neil Postman. If you haven’t read it, you should. Get a copy quick, it might be banned, if either Trump or DeSantis manage to get into the White House.
If you’re here and reading this, you know the stakes as well as I do. If we reelect Donald Trump, we will no longer be respected as a serious nation and we will slip as a superpower. Our place on the world stage will be compromised, I fear irrevocably.
George W. Bush was the mulligan. His eight years tested our credibility something fierce, but the world let it pass, ala Boris Johnson. Trump was considered a freakish oddity, a backlash to Obama, and we restored our credibility by voting him out. To vote him back in will be curtains. Goodbye USA, hello banana republic.
It’s the polls.
Thank you. I may not go head first off the balcony. All the polls show Trumpty Dumpty as a superstar and he’s a freaking CRIMINAL!!! I believe it’s safe to say that this week he’ll be adjudicated as being liable for rape and criminal charges may come up from Georgia in the very near future. How this POS is even in contention for any political office is beyond me. We can’t be this stupid, or we are going to self destruct.
I get it that he’s ahead in the GOP primary, because that party has been collapsing for quite some time. But not in the general population. That I don’t get.
The Bezos billionaire funded Washington Post, not the Washington Post of Watergate, (though it’s still coasting on that reputation).
It’s at least partially the Murdochs and their profitable brand of propaganda. Without Fux News, Trump would never have made it into the White House. Even with Fux on his side 24/7, the much-detested Hillary won the popular vote. The poison spread by the Murdoch empire has infected the nation very dangerously, possibly fatally.
I read a little more about this poll. It was a poll of “voting age adults” rather than registered voters or likely voters. So who knows who these people were? That made me feel a bit better but not much.
We have to be serious as a people about our elected officials and our government. Or we will lose this form of government and live under some form of autocracy, as so many people in the world do.
Ursula, if I had any significant hair, I’m right there with you. An easy argument can be made this is an ignorant, naive, consumer culture with a healthy dose of ageism, racism, sexism and arrogance mixed into a Jim Jones cocktail. I’m hoping the prosecutors in his cases move quickly to tar and feather this fascist. Maybe after being convicted of several of his many crimes, he won’t play so well on TV. The press needs to stop being whores for ads, attention, and ratings, and get busy TELLING THE TRUTH! The democrats need to get off their ‘nice’ PR focused asses and start screaming just like baby huey would. The rest of us must confront stupidity when it rears its ugly head. Let’s not be the people in that famous quote who stood by and did nothing while evil took over. Over my goddamn dead body. Our children and their collective future is worth fighting for. So let’s not cave to fear. Phuck fear. Hello freedom from fear! There’s a reason ‘fear not’ is the most repeated command in the Bible! Sounds like good advice.
I’ve been checking Truth Social to see Trumpty crow about this but so far he hasn’t. Surprisingly. Astonishingly, as a matter of fact.
A few hours from now is the deadline in the E. Jean Carroll case. He either agrees to testify or this matter is done and closing arguments begin tomorrow. The rest of his cases are moving right along.
And the GOP is pretending that this doesn’t matter. It’s all a series of political hit jobs. The GOP is complicit. If we end up, God forbid, in an autocracy, it’s their doing. It’s what they want because they fear winning normal, democratic elections.
On mental acuity, 94%of Republicans, 69% of independents and even 21% of Democrats said Biden lacks the sharpness to be president.
“Just 32% overall think Biden has the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president, down steeply from 51% when he was running for president three years ago,” ABC’s Gary Langer notes.
54% think Trump has the needed mental sharpness.
On physical health needed to govern, just 33% think Biden, age 80, has it — vs. 64% for Trump, who’s 76.
This is just unbelievable. Makes you wonder if any of those polled have listened to tfg. He’s made more verbal gaffes than a 2 year old. And physically, all one has to do is put a photo of the two side by side to know who is more fit and healthy. What the hell is wrong with people?
I seriously think pollsters seek out the people who will give them the results they want.
I join you in your astonishment. Trump is morbidly obese. Biden is not. Trump raves like a two year old on social media. That’s mental sharpness?
Raving like a two year old on social media does indeed seem to be the current measure of mental sharpness. How else do we explain the Kardashians?
Thanks Ursula for that. I too was suspect? No I think a serious poll would show much different results, especially while the antics of Thomas and Wife play out in on and about the TOTALLY unbiased Supreme Court. I just hope congress has the cajons’ to call Roberts on if he does have to have a chat with Congress. I’m looking for Trump and the GOP go down in flames in 2024. Also I think Mickey Mouse will put the final kick on the De Santos shot at the White House???
Great! Given their track record with predicting Hillary’s overwhelming win, Biden will waltz in!
There is always that. I remember thinking it was a shoo-in. I was worried about down ballot races in other states. I was in California in 2016 and of course we were a shoo-in for Hillary but I believed so many other states were, too. Pennsylvania, certainly. I got blindsided. That’s one of the reasons I started writing about it all. I won’t get fooled again. I may have to put up with b.s. polls like this one but I’m looking at indicators everywhere.
Sorry to break the news to you but Clinton was not the right candidate. Her husband got chumped by the republiCLOWNS and sent MILLIONS of middle class jobs to china along with setting up the banks to collapse.
You should check out the “Clinton foundation”…
Ptg Actually it was Ronald Regan who SENT (blundered more likely?) those millions of jobs you mention. Clinton was merely inheriting his and the Dems share of what was the absolutely WORST political decision of the last century and I include Hitler’s decision to invade Poland in that list of BAD DECISIONS!!!!!!!. Reaganomics and Free Trade have ruined this nation. Come on Ptg Checking out the Clinton Foundation would be a colossal waste of times Both Hillary and Bill have been the targets of the most careful scrutiny and everyone knows that. Thank you Knut Gingris you giant arsenide and waster of American’s taxes. And after Benghazi and white water what did the American people get for their billion dollars he wasted? They got a eeny teeny little lovin with Miss Monica in the Oval Playpen and they were happy with that. You should be too Ptg, there are bigger fish to fry. (period). Why must the Dems always insist on eating their own?
The equation is simple and proven: Controversy/outrage/scandal = higher ratings – more money. A related bit of math proves that a close contest of any kind is more likely to gain attention than on that is not. We see it in sports all the time – one player/team is way the hell ahead of the other and fans start leaving in droves to get to their cars and out of the parking lot to avoid the traffic. Or turn the channel of the TV or worse turn it off entirely!
Put those two together and those in journalism, from the very top on down to not just the reporters but their researchers (if they rate enough to have such staff) hopes for, wants, even CRAVES a “horse race”. One with two or more horses running neck and neck down the homestretch all the way to the finish line. For political reporters, and some in the executive suites that have some name recognition and can write a memoir someday that will sell getting their name/face parked in people’s minds means the kind of money most of us can only dream of. Higer ratings means more name recognition for THEM and therefore some fairly immediate and long-term (significant) financial gain.
So, out of pure personal f**king greed (with a healthy dose of ego mixed in) they WHORE themselves out using the tried and true tactic of come hell or high water figure out a way to SLANT coverage of the overall news to create that election horse race. Regardless of the cost to others, to this country, to other free counties that are allies. To freedom and democracy itself. Ok, there is the odd exception here and there but the overall system is hard-wired the way I’ve said it is. You know it. I know it. They (journalists) know it and that many of US know it. And if ANY journalist including and especially a prominent one gets word of this and offers some mealy-mouthed defense, says I’m wrong etc. by coming here to reply or contacting me directly I’ll say here and now you’re a mother-f**king LIAR!
JOURNALISM WANTS ITS GOD-DAMNED HORSERACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And the craven desire for fame and riches of those in that profession will if unchecked do incalculable harm to countless people. Including if not themselves because the full effects don’t come till after they are dead and gone then their children. When even acknowledging there was a time when in this country (and others) there was something called freedom of the press and that journalists and anyone for that matter could not only question but even criticize authority without being jailed if not executed.
But for years, including as I write this even though in their hearts they know this their desire to be even more famous and more rich overrides all else. The damage they do in their craven lust for more for themselves? THEY DON’T CARE!
Star Trek type artificial gravity is a quite real thing in political reporting. Journalists long ago mastered the science of creating political gravity to make a given election between two candidates into a close one whenever they wanted.
And they want Trump running in the general in 2024. More than that, they want it to be as close an election as possible. And as anyone with half a brain can see from this and other polling news coverage has been shaped to make President Biden seem weak and hapless, and that Trump really does have a chance at re-election despite everything.
The sad fact is that second part is true. He does have a chance because major news outlets have CONSPIRED to make goddamned sure things have turned out that way.
denis: There’s no disputing much of what you say but to be sure you cannot blame the fourth estate for the rise of Trump? I say thank God for the media who kept the focus on the last President we had! But……News outlets are NOT conspiring to fix or f*ck anything regarding Trump. It’s a matter of “Give em enough rope and he’ll hang himself” He’s good copy? Yes. He ups your ratings? Yes. He’s news? Yes. But fix it for him? No. You see denis they especially understand that had Trump been successful on Jan 06, the first heads on the chopping block would have been theirs, and Fox would have become the State Media Bureau. Didn’t you wonder what Murdoch was in it for? He wanted to be an American Oligarch, so he could have more and more billions. There’s your conspirators, look no further. denis, when you hear Trump harping “fake news” that means news he doesn’t want to have to deal with, trust it! I say two things about Dems, They always eat their own, and you are guilty of the second thing I like to say about Dems denis. They like to bring knives to a gun fight!!!!!! Stop looking at what Trump is pointing at and start looking at Trump.
Trump, who can’t even walk round a golf course is in better physical shape than a guy who rides a bicycle???????????????
The mental acuity of someone who thinks that an exporting country pays the import taxes or who believes that the solution to Ukraine is just to stop all aid and hand it over to Vlad?
The guy who, if he tells you it’s raining, has you running outside to check?
Groucho…you know before he told you it’s raining, he’d try to sell you a cheap poncho.
The media has been pounding the ageism drum for weeks and people are buying into it. Just had that conversation with a friend the other night who was disparaging Biden because he was so old and feeble. I set her straight that this was a guy who runs and bikes, any verbal fumbles are residuals of his stuttering and that his brain goes faster than his mouth can keep up. We’ve seen this act before, where the media starts negatively pounding away at one of candidates and before long we see it in the polls, going back to Kerry and Howard Dean. When 90% of the news stories are negatively bent, it’s hard to come back from that, no matter what the truth is.
Look at the timing.
I don’t trust “polls” run by bald pecker heads like bezos.
https://crooksandliars.com/files/images/23/05/biden-old-dull_animation.gif
We actually need to put this back in place. The Fairness Doctrine. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/topic-guide/fairness-doctrine
Naaw, this is RW BS! Trump has done NOTHING for the Amerikan people! He gave over 7 Trillion in Tax breaks to the RICH, in the 4 yrs, he was in office! That’s the REASON the DEFICIT is so high! Otherwise, he undid all the good things for the people, that PBO legislated, Trump & his RW, made it more difficult to survive in the U.S. No raises, No Unions, NO Mental Health care for VETS w/PSTD! More GUNS in the hands of RW Nazi Terrorists! The Majority know what’s going on, & it ain’t a Democracy anymore! That’s the way the Trump, DeSantis & GQP/RW White extremists want it!
Don’t kid yourself ,you know it and I know it ….whoever loses is going to cry “ fake election “ and we get another 8 years of mindless bullshit . Strap in and get ready for the strap on ….