NEWS AND OPINION:

Wait, the honeymoon is over? Those are 4 little phrases that few leaders wish to encounter.

“After a relatively strong debut in his first year in office, the honeymoon is over for President Joe Biden, as approval ratings of U.S. leadership worldwide slid at the halfway mark of his term,” studies Julie Ray, a author and analyst for Gallup.

She has the numbers.

“A new Gallup report based on surveys in nearly 140 countries in 2022 shows that the median global approval rating of U.S. leadership stood at 41% last year. This rating is much lower than the 49% median approval measured during Biden’s first six months on the job — before the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan — and the 45% approval for his first full year in office,” Ms. Ray wrote in an evaluation.

“Historically, the 41% approval rating is considerably lower than former President Barack Obama’s second-year rating of 47% but still higher than former President Donald Trump’s second year (31%) or the ratings during the last two years of George W. Bush’s presidency (38% and 34%),” she famous.

The numbers are from a bigger report. Find it at Gallup.com; the title is “U.S. and Germany slip, Russia stumbles on the global stage.”

It’s nonetheless the financial system

Here is one thing for all of the marketing campaign strategists to contemplate. Former President Donald Trump may win again the White House in 2024 if “pocketbook” issues are an element for voters.

“Economic competence mattered in electoral politics” in a long time previous, writes Gerald Baker, a columnist and editor at massive for The Wall Street Journal.

“It’s a quaint thought now to assume that issues like wages, inflation, rates of interest and the worth of your pension financial savings and different belongings are necessary measures by which those that govern us are judged. 

But let me interrupt our compelling nationwide dialog for a second and ask: Is it doable that this historical curiosity is likely to be poised to make a comeback?” he asks.

“We can’t know what the economic situation will be like in November 2024, but we have plenty of evidence to say that, as things stand, Democrats should be in big trouble if stewardship of the economy counts at all with voters,” Mr. Baker notes.

He then supplied a fancy however intriguing rationale for this concept, and cited issues associated to the nationwide debt, troubles within the banking sector and inflation on the Democratic Party’s watch.

“Democrats think they can avoid accountability for all these economic errors by making the terms of political debate about threats to ‘democracy.’ But this record of dismal financial and economic management makes me skeptical of the widely touted idea that Donald Trump can’t win next year,” Mr. Baker later mentioned.

“The Trump calculation has always been that voters will accept the evident flaws in the man’s character and behavior as the price for turning out a party that is literally impoverishing them. The Democrats have to hope the national conversation never gets back to economics,” he famous.

Those ‘early’ voters

Let’s linger with some new numbers in regards to the public’s voting patterns throughout the 2022 midterm election — which seems to have extra significance than beforehand thought, maybe.

“Voter turnout for the 2022 U.S. congressional elections was the second highest for a nonpresidential election year since 2000, with 52.2% of the citizen voting-age population participating. And registration rates were the highest for a midterm election since 2000, with 69.1% of the citizen voting-age population registered to vote, up 2.2 percentage points from 66.9% in 2018,” in keeping with Current Population Survey information launched Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

“For the 2022 election, the survey found that nearly one-third (31.8%) of all voters cast ballots by mail, up from 23.1% in 2018. Almost half (47.1%) voted before Election Day, up from 37.8% in 2018,” the Census information mentioned.

“Among those who were registered but did not vote in the 2022 elections, the most common answer given for not voting was, ‘Too busy, conflicting work or school schedule.’ The most common way people registered to vote was at the Department of Motor Vehicles; 29.8% of respondents reported registering at their DMV,” the information famous.

Ivy-covered halls

More than 90 Harvard University college members have joined a newly shaped Council on Academic Freedom on the college to advertise and defend First Amendment beliefs and mental range on campus.

“I’m hoping we can restore some of the dignity and respect that universities, and Harvard in particular, used to grant unconventional thinkers, oddballs and nonconformists, who have always been the source of the most important new ideas,” pc science professor Harry Lewis advised The College Fix, a student-written publication.He is a “co-leader” within the new council.

The group itself plans to arrange workshops, host visitor lecturers, and train programs, in keeping with the council’s co-leader and Harvard professor Flynn Cratty.

“When necessary, we will also hold the university accountable so that it lives up to its stated principles. We will help ensure that campus leaders respect Harvard’s commitments to academic freedom. We will protest if those freedoms are violated. We will also provide solidarity with Harvard scholars who are threatened with penalty because of their speech,” Mr. Cratty suggested.

Poll du jour

63% of registered U.S. voters disapprove of the way in which President Biden is dealing with the financial system; 35% approve and a couple of% don’t know.

62% disapprove of the way in which he handles gun points; 35% approve and three% don’t know.

61% disapprove of the way in which he handles points associated to China; 35% approve, 3% don’t know.

61% disapprove of the way in which the president handles immigration; 36% approve, 4% don’t know.

53% disapprove of the way in which he handles the U.S. response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; 43% approve, 4% don’t know.

52% disapprove of the way in which he handles nationwide safety; 45% approve, 3% don’t know.

Source: A Fox News ballot of 1,004 U.S. voters carried out April 21-24 and launched Monday.

Follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin.

Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com