US Government Dismisses Lawsuit Against TikTok 0:47
(CNN) -
Joe Biden's presidency is now six months old.
You would be apologetic if you hadn't realized how long Biden has been in office because Biden doesn't generate nearly the same interest in the news (see Google searches) that his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, did.
The lack of a setback in the first few months has translated into Biden's approval rating.
It has been the most stable for any president since the end of World War II.
This, in fact, has been the story of the Biden presidency from the standpoint of popularity.
At every point I've checked to see how Biden is doing from a historical perspective, nothing seems to affect his approval ratings.
Right now, Biden's average approval rating is around 53%, no matter how the average is calculated.
Over the course of Biden's first six months in office, his approval rating has never risen above 55% or dropped below 51% in average polls.
It was 53% in April and 54% in May.
To give an idea of what Biden's approval rating is, you just have to look at the history.
Before Biden, the average rank for post-WWII presidents in their first six months in office was 14 points.
Biden's rank is less than a third of that.
advertising
Almost all the other presidents saw their top and bottom approval ratings differ by more than 7 points or more.
(Lyndon Johnson's gap was about 5.5 points.)
Former President Donald Trump's rank was 10 points, and he was thought to have a historically stable approval rating.
Biden, however, has not gained a new following since the election.
His approval rating matches his percentage of votes (51%) and his favorable rating in exit polls (52%) almost perfectly.
On the other hand, it has been noted how Biden's relative ranking on the approval rating has increased as time has passed.
Biden's initial approval rating was near the bottom (only topping Trump) in January.
Biden government purchases more doses of Pfizer's covid-19 vaccine for possible vaccination of minors and boosters
Today, he surpasses Trump, Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton.
The approval ratings for Barack Obama and George W. Bush are within the margin of error for Biden's approval rating.
With greater polarization, Biden's approval rating is likely more likely not to move significantly during his presidency than in an earlier era.
On the polarization front, Biden should be pleased that Democrats still seem to back him firmly.
It's hard to find a reputable poll where your approval rating among Democrats is less than 90%.
In the latest ABC News / Washington Post poll, for example, it's 94%.
No other president in the post-World War II era had an approval rating within his own party at this point as Biden does now.
That is not to say that everything is wonderful for Biden.
The percentage of people who strongly support Biden appears to have dropped somewhat.
In the AP-NORC poll, for example, 25% and 26% of the public strongly approved of it in their latest polls.
In all of his polls prior to the most recent, more than 30% of people strongly approved of Biden.
Similarly, in an average of live interview polls, the percentage who strongly approved of Biden went from 31% in both January and February to 27% now.
A big question going forward is whether this indicates that Biden's base may not be as strong as it appears at first glance.
5 takeaways from CNN's forum with President Joe Biden
Another bad news for Biden is that opposition to him seems to have hardened.
Biden's disapproval rating is now in the low range in his mid-40s versus the mid-30s in January.
This reflects that more people go from being undecided to disapproving of Biden.
If Biden expected that his efforts in the first six months of his presidency would attract new supporters, he is wrong, at least for the moment.
Of course, Biden would probably agree not to gain followers, as long as he doesn't lose any.
Its approval rating is still above water, and that's certainly better than its predecessor.
Approval Joe Biden