The puzzle of Joe Biden’s unpopularity

I find President Biden’s unpopularity puzzling. He is rounding out his first year in the White House with the lowest end of first-year approval ratings of any elected president in modern times with the exception of Donald Trump. Why? Biden is a genial, likable person. Many of the policies he has pursued have been popular, some even with Republican support. The country is doing reasonably well economically, as measures such as declining unemployment, the stock market and interest rates demonstrate. So why did the latest CNN average of the polls have him at 45 percent?

One has to remember that Biden is something of an accidental president. He got elected for two reasons, neither of which had anything to do with his personal popularity. First, Barack Obama chose him as vice president, which instantly elevated him in the Democratic field. Second, Donald Trump. Had these two factors not been present, it’s difficult to imagine Biden in the White House.

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