A recent survey by Gallup, America’s oldest operating and most prestigious polling firm, has ranked all five living Presidents of the United States according to their popularity. In their polling, Barack Obama came in first, while Joe Biden was ranked last by the respondents.
Only 39 per cent of respondents said they had a favourable view of the 46th POTUS, while 57 per cent said they had an unfavourable view of him, giving him a net favourability rating of negative 28 points.
These findings are in line with a poll by the British firm J.L. Partners in December, which also measured Joe Biden as the least popular President in recent history—in their survey, they also included former Presidents who have passed away.
In the more recent Gallup poll, incumbent President Trump is ranked fourth out of the five living POTUS. However, his favourability rating is still miles above that of Biden’s: 48 per cent of voters view him positively, while 50 per cent view him negatively. That is still a favourability rating in the negative; however, by only two points, compared to Joe Biden’s minus 28.
The most popular of them all, Barack Obama, has a plus 23 favourability rating, with 59 per cent of people viewing him positively, and 36 per cent viewing him negatively. In a somewhat surprising turn, he is followed by George W Bush. By the end of his second term, President Bush had historically low approval ratings (in the high 20s to low 30s according to Gallup). He left office in the midst of a financial crisis and an unpopular war in Iraq. Yet, according to this survey, Americans view his terms in the White House positively in retrospect, with 52 per cent having a favourable view of him and only 34 per cent having an unfavourable view of him.
‘Joe Biden is despised by Americans to a ridiculous degree. And that is with overwhelmingly positive media coverage of his administration’
Bill Clinton, on the other hand, had an approval rating in the high 50s and even the low 60s towards the end of his second term, despite his impeachment and his sex scandal involving White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Yet he is less popular with the American people than George W Bush in this recent Gallup survey, with 48 per cent of them having a favourable opinion of him and 41 per cent having an unfavourable opinion of him.
So, what is the main takeaway of this Gallup poll?
It is that Joe Biden, the most recent President to occupy the White House from the Democratic Party, is despised by Americans to a ridiculous degree. He finished 26 points behind the second least popular living President in favourability rating. That is with overwhelmingly positive media coverage of his administration, while his challenger, Donald Trump, received overwhelmingly negative media coverage.
Such a disaster of a presidency can seriously damage his party and the credibility of the media with it—if it has not already done so.
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