Byron York writes in the Washington Examiner: Biden’s popularity plunges; lower than Cheney’s
Vice President Joe Biden’s favorable rating has fallen to 42 percent in a new Gallup poll, down from a high of 59 percent just after last year’s election. Biden’s unfavorable rating in the new poll is 40 percent, up from 29 percent last November. (Eighteen percent of those surveyed say they have no opinion of Biden.)
Biden’s average favorable rating during his time in office so far is 45 percent — well below the average 65 percent favorable rating for Vice President Dick Cheney during Cheney’s first year in office.
Four immediate thoughts:
1) The headline is misleading, as it suggests a contemporaneous comparison.
2) At this same point in Bush-Cheney administration we had just experienced 9/11 and there was a substantial rally-around-the-flag effect going on, so year-to-year comparisons make no sense.
3) Biden is a less significance figure in the Obama administration than Cheney was in the Bush administration. Having said that, however, we are talking veeps here, so I have to wonder about the overall relevance of said numbers.
4) My guess is that after his term is over (be it 4 or 8 years), Biden will leave office more popular than was Cheney when he left simply because Biden is simply not as controversial a figure as Cheney (although, granted, things could change, but it seems unlikely).
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