Editorial: Suspicious of Biden’s high poll numbers?

The Associated Press has projected Joe Biden to be the United States' next president.

Contributed Photo: Joe Biden has a 63% approval rating according to the Associated Press.

Column By Mike Bibb

According to a recent Associated Press poll, President Joe Biden has a 63% overall public approval rating.  Not bad for a guy whose lackluster performance on border issues, economic fumbles, monetary dislocations, Middle East flare-ups, and often disjointed speeches might influence a person to think otherwise.

It gets better.  The AP reported Joe also scored 71% positive on the way he’s handled the COVID-19 virus.

I’ll have to admit, I’m a little perplexed over exactly what he’s done to receive such a favorable report on the pandemic. Seems to me he’s simply repeating what the CDC’s Dr. Anthony Fauci regularly recommends to him.  I haven’t noticed Joe saying or doing much, other than promoting the vaccines and wearing a mask.  Both of which, were also Fauci’s suggestions.

Now, flip-flopping Dr. Fausi is beginning to rethink his opinions of the origins of the virus.  He says there is mounting evidence the stuff was intentionally engineered in a Chinese laboratory, not accidentally escaping from a local meat market.  Fauci is encouraging additional investigation of the situation; nearly a 180-degree reversal of what he was professing a few months ago.

Of primary concern is why the United States government was involved with the Chinese government in researching coronavirus-type pathogens?  Was there an actual attempt to make COVID more lethal?  Remarkably, President Biden is suddenly wondering the same thing. 

Typical Fauci brain strains – when the narrative begins to shift to more obvious conclusions, then in the interest of maintaining his public exposure he’ll go with the current trend.  Besides, he can always change his mind later.   

President Biden had virtually nothing to do with the vaccines’ development and people were wearing facemasks long before they became a fashion and political statement.  Joe simply stumbled onto the stage to bask in the media’s limelight. The pandemic has been around a year and a half.  Joe received his vaccine shots in December before he took office in January.  He’s been president for about four months.  Do the math.

I’m not overly confident in polls, as I’ve discovered they can be tinkered with and tilted in clever ways encouraging a certain topic or to enhance, or disparage a person’s reputation.  While many may have the appearance of legitimacy, often reflecting the assumed honesty of the organization sponsoring it, others appear to defy common sense.  

Not to imply the AP poll falls into this category.  I really don’t know, having scant information on the overall mechanics of the poll or the political ideologies of those conducting it.  However, the Associated Press is a large media company, and since most news outlets lean left in their politics, it stands to reason the AP’s poll on Biden would tend to reflect a more positive outlook than may actually exist. 

Particularly when it is considered the popularity of former President Donald Trump remains exceptionally robust.  With Congress nearly split down the middle between Democrats and Republicans and assuming this is a fair representation of the voting public, then it becomes even more suspicious Joe’s widespread acceptance isn’t necessarily based upon accurate and factual reporting, rather biased opinions.

In reality, Biden has displayed little interest in several of our country’s more pressing issues.  He has yet to calm the crisis on the Mexican border, instead appearing to inflame it even more.  His “catch and release” policies have injected thousands of illegal border crossers into the interior of the country.

Joe’s monetary policies appear to consist of printing money until the paper mills run out of trees.  Handing out trillions of dollars in “Covid relief,” and proposing additional trillions in “infrastructure reconstruction,” only adds to the trillions of dollars we’re already in debt.  But, who’s counting?

The pandemic is an on-again/off-again hodge-podge of bureaucratic decrees, administrated by Washington and state governors, often viewing the virus as a tool to amplify their personal authority.  Some states remain almost in lockdown while others are up and running, their citizens nearly free of restrictions

He has fumbled the ball on our nation’s reliance on fossil fuels, at the same time encouraging Russia’s oil and gas dominance in Europe.  Wind and solar sound great until it’s realized they can only provide a small percentage of our energy needs.  Nevertheless, according to several knowledgeably challenged congressional people, academic professors, and climate specialists, we only have about 10 years before the seas rise to drown us or the world ends while gasping for air. 

That is if runaway “racism” doesn’t convict a large segment of the population first.  I can envision a day when I’ll have to plead before a judge my preference for Thanksgiving’s light meat over dark has absolutely nothing to do with the lifestyles of my great, great, great, great grandparents, or my alleged “white privilege,” slavery, civil rights or the color of my neighbor’s epidermis.  Actually, I just don’t particularly care for a certain cut of a turkey’s anatomy.  Believe it or not, it’s that’s uncomplicated. 

These and other woke ideas presently permeating our society – from grade school to expensive Ivy League lecture halls, to boardrooms of corporate America – we’re being gradually indoctrinated with anti-American disinformation every day.  Even more absurd, we’re foolishly financing it. 

Perhaps our biggest mistake is we’ve ignored the basic concept that it takes an orderly and disciplined society to maintain the concepts of freedom.  The Founders wisely provided the rule book to follow, but we’ve nearly shredded it in pursuit of unbridled progressivism.   

Why doesn’t the president forcefully speak against these errors in judgment?  There are probably several logical answers, but the most obvious is he doesn’t care, as it may conflict with his predetermined agenda.

Plus, maybe he doesn’t want to risk getting canceled on Facebook or Twitter by discussing things that could offend the delicate sensitivities of social media’s self-appointed censors. 

Editor’s Note: Former President Donald Trump left office with a 34% approval rating per a Gallup poll. The number is the same received by Presidents George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter in their final Gallup polls, with only Harry S. Truman receiving a lower rating heading out of office at 32%. However, in the history of the Gallup Poll stretching back to the 1940s, Trump scored the lowest approval rating across his entire term with an average of 41.1%. In his final poll, Trump received an approval rating from only 4% of Democrats and 30% of Independents but had an 82% approval rating from Republicans. 

The final Gallup poll for Trump was based on telephone interviews of only 1,023 adults conducted Jan. 4-15, 2021, with a margin of error of 4 percentage points. 

According to a Pew Research Center poll, Trump’s final job approval rating as president was just 29%.