Americans are fickle. They like to play the field.
You’ve got to go back 35 years to 1988 to find a given political party winning a third consecutive term in the White House. Back then, Ronald Reagan handed off to George Bush. But before that, the last string of three presidents from the same party began in 1921.
Bill Clinton was two and out, as were George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Donald Trump was one and done.
And now, a new poll finds Americans are very much leaning toward showing President Joe Biden the door on November 5, 2024. And it’s not just Republicans — Democrats agree that he ought to get the boot after a single term.
Just 37% of Democrats say they want Biden to seek a second term, down from 52% in the weeks before last year’s midterm elections, a survey by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs found.
The liberal AP, normally a Biden cheerleader, gave the commander-in-chief a little tough love.
“While Biden has trumpeted his legislative victories and ability to govern, the poll suggests relatively few U.S. adults give him high marks on either. Follow-up interviews with poll respondents suggest that many believe the 80-year-old’s age is a liability, with people focused on his coughing, his gait, his gaffes and the possibility that the world’s most stressful job would be better suited for someone younger,” the AP said.
Ouch.
The wire service quoted Democrats and Republicans musing about the old man. “I, honestly, think that he would be too old,” said Sarah Overman, 37, a Democrat who works in education in Raleigh, North Carolina. “We could use someone younger in the office.”
Then the AP went to Republican John Rodriguez, 76, who the agency said “backed Trump and assumes that Biden is merely doing the bidding of his aides.”
“I believe he’s not the one who’s calling the shots,” said Rodriguez, who lives in Cutler Bay, Florida. “He’s a puppet being told where to go, what to say.”
Meanwhile, another poll found Trump would beat Biden by three points in a rematch of 2020 — but that most Americans say they don’t want to do it again.
In an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Sunday, 48% of registered voters said they would vote for Trump with 45% backing Biden.
While this falls within the four-point margin of error, it is a flip from September when Biden was beating Trump by two points. Independent voters lean Trump by nine percentage points at a 50%-41% split.
And a lot of Americans don’t want Biden to run. If he does, 30% said they would be “angry,” while another 32% said they would be “dissatisfied but not angry.”
Only 7% of respondents said they would be “enthusiastic” if Biden won re-election.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.