Into Year 2: The Biden Administration's Report Card
Image: Melina Mara/AP
🏛️ President Biden gave his first State of the Union address yesterday. (Full speech | From the Left | From the Right)
We’re more than a month into the second year of his administration – and what does America think of Biden’s presidency so far?
🔢 By the numbers... A new NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll found that a majority of Americans (56%) think Biden’s first year in office was a failure, while 39% think it was a success. 30% of respondents said they think the US is headed in the right direction.
- The survey also found Biden with record lows in his handling of the economy (36%), the pandemic (47%) and overall approval rating (39%).
Image: RCP
☝️ Polls, polls & more polls: RealClearPolitics’ polling average shows Biden’s approval rating near record lows, while his disapproval rating is near record highs.
Image: FiveThirtyEight
Similarly, FiveThirtyEight’s polling numbers show the gap between Biden’s approval and disapproval ratings are near an all-time high. Both sites combine data from hundreds of independent polls.
🗳️ Zoom out: Presidential approval ratings are usually a good indicator of what will happen in the midterms, which officially kicked off with a statewide primary in Texas yesterday.
- There's plenty of time for things to change between now and November – but if elections were held today, 47% of registered voters would support a generic Republican congressional candidate in their district versus 43% for Democrats, per RCP.
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| February 23, 2022Russia, Ukraine and Rising Geopolitical Tensions
After announcing he would recognize two breakaway “republics” in eastern Ukraine on Monday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed an unknown number of troops to the regions for "peace keeping" operations.
The White House said the move means Russia is officially invading Ukraine. Yesterday, President Biden announced the “first tranche” of retaliatory sanctions on two Russian banks and the country's sovereign debt, and promised more sanctions targeting its elites and their family members would come today.
🇺🇦 A deeper dive… The two breakaway areas make up ~⅓ of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. They were created after Russia instigated a separatist war in eastern Ukraine in 2014, though Moscow has consistently denied its involvement.
- Putin on Tuesday said he believes the two republics should include the entire Donetsk and Luhansk regions, not just the area currently controlled by separatists.
🌏 Around the world: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky projected calm on Tuesday, saying he believes “there will be no mass war against Ukraine, and no broad escalation by the Russian Federation,” but that he will declare martial law if there is.
- Germany suspended the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline designed to double the flow of Russian gas into the country, which was finished in September but has stood idle pending EU and German certification.
- UK PM Boris Johnson announced the “first barrage” of sanctions against Russia, targeting five banks and three “very high net worth” Russian oligarchs.
🛢️📈 Market reaction… All three major US indexes were down over 1% yesterday, with the S&P 500 closing in correction territory (down at least 10% from a recent peak). Global energy prices jumped nearly 5% amid fears the conflict could stop the flow of Russian gas into Europe.
This week, we decided to split the 360° view into opinions “From the US” and “From the World”.
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