Darkening skies.
For two men seeking election to the presidency the skies are becoming increasingly cloudy.
One of those two men already has the job and wants to be re-hired. But things are not trending his way. President Biden’s job approval numbers can only be described as dismal.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal poll, Biden’s job performance is viewed favorably by just 37 percent of voters. The Real Clear Politics average of polls has his favorability vs. unfavorability rating under water by nearly 17 percentage points. The president’s job approval fell into negative territory in August of 2021 concurrent with the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and has steadily fallen since.
Concern about the president’s mental fitness continue to mount. He is increasingly incapable of speaking without mangling words. A speech on infrastructure this week in Las Vegas is an example.
Four years of infrastructure week. But it failed. He failed. On my watch, instead of infrastructure week America’s having infrastructure decade. Decade. Over a billion three hundred million trillion three hundred million dollars. Trump just talks the talk. We walk the walk.
As of last week, according to that same Wall Street Journal poll, former president Donald Trump beats Joe Biden 47 – 43 nationally. But more significantly, he beats Biden by 10 points in Michigan and by five in Georgia, two key swing states that Biden won in 2020.
Biden is hanging his reelection hopes on low unemployment numbers and declining inflation. But if the polls are to be believed, Americans aren’t buying it. As the Wall Street Journal reported this week:
It is less affordable than at any time in recent history to buy a home, and the math isn’t changing any time soon.”
The other man for who the skies are growing dark is Florida governor Ron DeSantis. His numbers, too, are slipping into dismal territory.
The DeSantis strategy has been to bet substantially all his primary chips on Iowa. His hope was to either win outright in Iowa or finish a strong second and take the resulting momentum into the New Hampshire primary a week later. DeSantis is the only GOP candidate to visit all 99 of Iowa’s counties.
But for all that effort, and with the Iowa Caucuses now just 33 days away, DeSantis appears to be coming up empty. In May of this year DeSantis trailed Donald Trump by 12.5 points according to Real Clear Politics. Today, he’s down by 30.
In New Hampshire in May DeSantis was in second place behind Trump by 14 points. As of yesterday, he is at a distant third, down by 37 and standing at just 8.5 percent. Ron DeSantis has lost ground in the polls nearly every week since formally announcing his candidacy on May 24 of this year.
The political skies are indeed cloudy for Ron DeSantis and President Biden. It is all but certain that DeSantis won’t be the GOP nominee next year. And it’s increasingly plausible that Joe Biden won’t be running for the Dems.
