Dan O’Donnell reports on President Biden’s final, desperate attempt to get Americans to forget about his economic failures.
Oct. 19, 2022
Perspective by Dan O’Donnell
In a last, desperate attempt at salvaging Democrat majorities in Congress ahead of next month’s midterms, President Biden on Tuesday stumbled and fumbled his way through a promise to codify Roe v. Wade if Democrats somehow pull off a miracle.
“Thank you, I’m sorry,” the President bizarrely said at the conclusion of his remarks, perhaps subconsciously understanding who will bear the brunt of the blame if Republicans retake both houses, which is looking increasingly likely with each passing day.
A New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday sent shockwaves through the political world by showing not only that Republicans hold a four-point lead on the generic congressional ballot, but also that they lead by nine points among independent voters and an almost-incomprehensible 18 points among independent women.
Barely a month after the Washington Post gleefully proclaimed that the abortion issue had “upended the midterms” as “an enthusiasm gap between Democratic and Republican voters has narrowed since the Supreme Court’s ruling [overturning Roe] while female voters who drifted away from the Democratic Party after the 2020 election are shifting back,” just five percent of voters told the Times poll that abortion was the most important issue to them.
By contrast, 26 percent listed “the economy (including jobs and the stock market” as their most important issue, while an additional 18 percent said “inflation or the cost of living.” By a nearly 9-to-1 margin, voters prioritized their personal finances over the codification of Roe v. Wade—which is precisely why Biden so desperately needed to shift the national conversation back to abortion policy.
Needless to say, a few more voters are buying groceries than are having abortions.
A CBS/YouGov poll released Sunday showed that nearly two-thirds of voters (65 percent) said the nation’s economy was getting worse, and 48 percent or respondents said Democrat policies have made it worse (compared with just 29 percent who responded that said policies had improved the economy). This is, of course, the primary reason that 58 percent of likely voters in the Times poll disapproved of Biden’s job performance; a number that includes 45 percent who strongly disapprove.
It is also why Biden and the Democrats need to keep talking about an issue that only five percent of people actually care about. What can they possibly say about an economy that they have destroyed? New research reveals that the average 401(k) retirement plan has lost $34,000 in value since the beginning of the year, while real wages have declined by an average of $4,000.
Meanwhile, interest rates have risen higher and faster than at any point in American history, so much so that the average monthly home payment has increased from $1,698 to $2,559 in just 12 months. On top of that, the rate hikes have done about as much as Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to actually reduce record-high inflation. The latest Consumer Price Index reading for September showed month-to-month inflation rising by 0.4 percent and, even more troublingly, the more stable core inflation rate (which strips out the more volatile food and energy price readings) rose 0.6 percent.
Needless to say, a few more voters are buying groceries than are having abortions. And they’re cursing Democrats every time they pull out a credit card on which they’re now paying usuriously high interest rates. They know who has gotten the country into this mess, and no amount of abortion speeches will change their minds.
