Biden Whiffing on 2 Big Promises of His Presidency

Joe Biden's poll numbers are going south. An average of polls at FiveThirtyEight shows that more people disapprove (49%) of him than approve (45%), a sharp reversal from the start of his presidency, when 53% approved and 36% disapproved. The decline has largely occurred over the last two months, notes the Pew Research Center, thanks to big factors such as the chaotic Afghanistan pullout, rising COVID cases, and trouble with his domestic agenda in Congress. Related coverage:

• The problem: At the Cook Political Report, Amy Walter writes that the issue is a serious one for Biden and Democrats because "these early mistakes go directly to the very rationale of his presidency; that it would be low drama and high competence." She adds that it's not unusual for a first-term president to go through a rough patch, and the big question is whether Biden can pull out of it. However, the longer he's in the White House, the more expectations will rise, and it won't be enough for Democrats to rely on the he's-not-Trump argument.

• In context: Biden's critics on the right already are pronouncing him a failure, and Susan B. Glasser at the New Yorker finds this just as ridiculous as when progressives anointed him the second coming of FDR in the spring. "It was too soon then to nominate him to a place on Mount Rushmore; it is too soon now to consign him to the ash heap of history," she writes. "What we might be seeing, instead, is a bit of a return to normalcy in American politics—the kind of normalcy in which a President’s job-approval rating goes up or down depending on how people think he is actually doing."
• From the right: At the National Review, Jim Geraghty ticks off Biden's troubles, including those mentioned above, plus border issues and friction with France and China. "Biden, Antony Blinken, and the rest of the president’s team spent a lot of time patting themselves on the back and declaring that 'America is back!' after taking office," he writes. "But as autumn arrives, they look naïve, unprepared, slow-footed, and in over their heads. A flailing president is a failing president."
• From the right, II: Matt Lewis is even more scathing in the Daily Beast. "It’s starting to feel like the wheels are coming off for Joe Biden at the job he’s been dreaming of since he first arrived in the Senate in 1973," he writes. This applies to the both the domestic and global fronts. Lewis notes that he has previously criticized former President Trump's "childish approach to governing ... but it turns out that dunking on him and signifying responsibility without actually achieving better results isn’t nearly enough."
• Unwanted comparison: Meanwhile, two separate pieces in the New York Times this week make a similar point that Democrats won't like—that in regard to Afghanistan and the border, Biden appears to be borrowing from the Trump playbook. One is a news analysis by Michael D. Shear, Natalie Kitroeff, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, and Eileen Sullivan, and the second is a column by Frank Bruni. "Biden is a far cry from Trump," writes Bruni. "Hallelujah. But that doesn’t mean that he’s untouched by Trump."

(More President Biden stories.)