Public Opinion of President Biden "Cementing", According to New Harvard Harris Poll

Each month, Harris Poll Chairman Mark Penn and Bob Cusack, Editor in Chief of The Hill, discuss findings from the latest Harvard-Harris Poll, a collaboration with the Center for American Political Studies.

The latest poll was conducted November 27-28 among more than 2,000 registered voters nationwide.

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Mark Penn:

Welcome to the podcast with Mark Penn and Bob Cusack, editor in chief of The Hill and we're going to discuss this month's Harvard CAPS Harris Poll that's just come out of the field with almost 2,000 interviews and I think it's going to be a provocative discussion as public opinion in the United States continues to harden, mostly against the administration. Particularly as the virus is seen as growing and the economy is seen as sinking.

Bob Cusack:

So Mark, if you had one word to really capture this month's polling, what would it be?

Mark Penn:

The word would be "cementing". The negative attitudes towards the administration are now being set as set as immigration, crime, core issues, now also next to that are the economy and the virus is going up, producing a negative mood and the gap in the leadership the people are looking for. These negative ratings that we saw during the summer that happened during Afghanistan have really cemented now and that's going to mean real problems for the democrats and this administration unless they act and act in a really big way.

Bob Cusack:

What was the most surprising thing? Because there's a lot of data here, there's presidential, there's virus data. What surprised you the most this month?

Mark Penn:

I was surprised most by the fact that the public mood is turning so sour in such a short period of time. This is almost a repeat of what happened with Obama but almost to a greater swing where there was so much promise, we have a democratic president, we're no longer governed by Trump, it's a new day, the economy is tooling along. All of those things looked so great in the spring and now the public is like my situation is getting worse, they see inflation, the economy is on the wrong track, they don't like the president, they're turning on the democratic party, a little bit on the republican. I mean it's just a sour mood out there. And as you know, when the public mood is sour, incumbents better watch out.

Bob Cusack:

That's right. I mean we're seeing a lot of democrats retire instead of seek re-election. That's always a telling sign that the party is not going to do that great going into the midterm. The virus is back as a top issue. And you really have to, sometimes, step back also. I know we do this every month, but we're still in the first year of the Biden presidency. And I know honeymoons don't last forever and Joe Biden's honeymoon is way over. But aren't these bad numbers? Again, they were good earlier this year and we talked about that. But for a first year president, these numbers are kind of troubling, aren't they?