Joe Biden's polls

The latest Gallup Poll shows that just 42 percent of Americans hold a favorable opinion of Vice President Joe Biden, with 40 percent viewing him unfavorably. That's the VP's worst showing since he was nominated at the Democratic National Convention, according to Gallup.

The CNN/Opinion Research poll has him at 45 favorable and 40 percent unfavorable.

The Rasmussen Reports poll, which surveys likely voters instead of all adults, says the vice president's favorability rating is 46 percent, with 47 percent holding an unfavorable view of him.

All the polls agree that he has dropped about 20 points from his post-election high.

"His predicament is stumping pollsters and has experts wondering what, if anything, the erosion in his numbers reveals about the public’s feelings," The Politico reported.

"I don't think Biden has burst into the news with some highly negative coverage since he was sworn in, and I don’t think we’ve seen a highly visible scandal," said Gallup Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport, "It’s an interesting puzzle.”

It's no puzzle at all. Right on the White House website you can see the reason for the VP's unpopularity. He's the face of the stimulus bill, or as the administration calls it, the "Recovery Act."

"Vice President Biden Hosts Conference Calls with Governors, Mayors, and County Officials to Discuss Recovery Act Implementation" reads the headline for one recent White House press release.

"Vice President Biden Updates President Obama on Recovery Act Year-End Progress," reads another.

"Vice President Biden Announces End of Year Targets for Recovery Act Progress," reads a third.

The Recovery Act, if you remember, was the $787 billion emergency spending bill that was sold to the public as absolutely necessary to prevent unemployment from going above 8 percent. It was rammed through Congress in February as the phone lines on Capitol Hill burned up with calls from angry voters.

The unemployment rate currently stands at nearly ten percent.

Only someone who thinks it's a great idea for the government to borrow $787 billion and spend it on politically favored projects could find it puzzling that Vice President Biden is unpopular.

One person who doesn't seem to be puzzled is Vice President Biden himself. On September 24 he held a conference call with governors and mayors to urge them to meet the October 15 deadline to report the number of jobs saved or created by the stimulus package.

"If it fails, I'm dead," he told them.

Today the vice president was in Boca Raton, Florida, to raise money for the Democratic National Committee. He told the crowd of about sixty Democratic donors that some of the administration's decisions -- bank bailouts, for instance -- were unpopular.

"Our constituents would rather have us go out and save rattlesnakes in Arizona," he said.

But the vice president insisted that the Recovery Act is working. "We're getting to the end of this toboggan run," he told the donors.

It's not clear if he was referring to the economy or the polls.


Copyright 2009

Editor's note: You might be interested in the previous posts, "The Explanation," "Making Us All Sick" and "Catastrophe Fatigue."

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