Reuters conducts weekly polls to determine the percentage of Americans who approve of Joe Biden’s job performance. Its latest poll found that only 46 percent of American adults approve of it.
A week earlier, Biden’s approval number was 53 percent, according to the same poll. The 46 percent figure is Biden’s lowest ever.
The decline surely is due to the debacle in Afghanistan. Surprisingly, though, 44 percent of respondents said they think Biden has done a “good job” in Afghanistan.
What would have to happen for these folks to conclude that Biden hasn’t done a good job there? American hostages and/or deaths, I guess.
I hope we don’t get either. If we don’t, Afghanistan probably won’t be a major long-term drag on Biden’s popularity. Americans will be somewhat less confident in his ability to conduct foreign policy and in his general competence, but I doubt that Afghanistan will be a political game-changer in this scenario.
But if American civilians die at the hands of the Taliban or become their captives or can’t get out of the country and are unaccounted for, Biden’s presidency obviously will suffer a major blow. And this sort of worst-case scenario is now a distinct possibility.
This explains why some congressional Democrats are now harshly criticizing Biden’s pullout. The New York Times detects “bipartisan fury” over it. So does the Washington Post. It cites the criticisms of key Senate Democrat committee leaders and House military veterans.
Fear that things will get even worse in Afghanistan also helps explain the finger pointing going on within the Biden administration. Publicly, Team Biden blames Donald Trump for this disaster. Privately, it seems, team members blame one another.
There is even a report that, when asked to give an update on the situation in Afghanistan, Kamala Harris screamed, “They will not pin this s*** on me!” I rate this report “too good to check.”
Harris may well have said no such thing, but her alleged statement is on its way to becoming a common refrain in Washington.
I have no doubt that “this s***” will be “pinned” where it belongs, on Joe Biden. Reuters’ poll shows that it already is. The only question is how deep the s*** will end up being.
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