Poll: Biden's Handling of Russia-Ukraine Crisis Hasn't Boosted His Public Approval Ratings

Evan at 42 percent, I'm surprised he's getting as much support as he is. The poll was conducted March 2nd to March 7th, and thus doesn't capture changing public sentiment over the this last week's rapid rise in gas prices. 

Entire lives and livehoods are being turned upside down by this oil crisis. It's obviously the Democrats' case for full decolonization of the economy has collapse and will burn them in the November elections. This is religion to these folks. Reason cannot break thought. We're about a fanatical adherence to faith doctrines. disconfirming evidence is whisked away with a condescending hand.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Biden, Democrats Lose Ground on Key Issues, WSJ Poll Finds":

WASHINGTON—President Biden and his fellow Democrats have lost ground to Republicans on several of the issues most important to voters, a new Wall Street Journal poll finds, a troubling sign for the party seeking to extend its controlling majority of Congress for another two years.

The new survey showed that 57% of voters remained unhappy with Mr. Biden’s job performance, despite favorable marks for the president’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a recent State of the Union speech, which provided him an opportunity to directly speak to millions of Americans. Just 42% said they approved of Mr. Biden’s performance in office, which was virtually unchanged from the previous Journal poll in mid-November.

Meanwhile, Democratic advantages narrowed over Republicans on issues related to improving education and the Covid-19 response. A 16-percentage-point Democratic edge on which party would best handle the pandemic was down to 11 points, while a 9-percentage-point lead on education issues was down to 5 points.

When asked about which party was best able to protect middle-class families, the 5-point advantage for Democrats four months ago evaporated and left the parties essentially tied on the question.

Voters also gave Democrats poor marks for handling inflation and the economy, which 50% cited as the top issue they want the federal government to address. The Ukraine conflict was No. 2, with 25% of voters saying it was most important. A majority of voters, 63%, said they disapproved of Mr. Biden’s handling of rising costs, the president’s worst rating on six policy issues surveyed in the poll. Meanwhile, 47% of voters said Republicans were better able to handle inflation, compared with 30% who preferred Democrats.

Underscoring the political problem for Democrats: More voters said that Republicans had a better plan to improve the economy, 45% to 37%, even though Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the party’s leaders in each chamber, have advanced few specific economic-policy proposals they would pursue if they controlled Congress.

Since the last Journal poll, Americans have been confronted with a spike in Covid-19 cases from the highly contagious Omicron variant, bottlenecks in supply chains that left gaps in store shelves in January and surges in gasoline and other consumer prices that have driven inflation to a 40-year high.

“The mood of the country hasn’t gotten any better since the last poll. In fact, it’s gotten a little worse,” said Democratic pollster John Anzalone, who was the lead pollster for Mr. Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and whose company conducted the Journal survey along with the firm of Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio.

Still, the challenges for Democrats haven’t significantly changed how voters said they expect to vote this year: 46% of voters said they would back a Republican candidate for Congress if the election were today, compared with 41% who favored a Democrat, with Republicans gaining support among Black and Hispanic voters since the last Journal poll...