Biden's Approval is Rising. Comparison with other Presidents:

[vcczar]

Not really a thing to brag about, but Joe Biden's approval is averaging exactly 40% now, according to 538.com. This is the first time he's been at 40% avg since June 15. His lowest avg was 37.5%, which shows his avg approval wasn't fluctuating much during this 37.5%-39.9% period. 

Biden's highest avg approval of his presidency is exactly 55%, something Trump never got close to achieving. Biden fell out of the 50% range in mid-August.

HIs lowest is the 37.5% avg. 

Trump was at 41.9 avg during hos presidency at this time, so Biden's 40.0, although an improvement, is kind of embarrasing, I hate to say. It looks worse when you consider that Trump's net approval was about -10.6 and Biden's is -15.4. Both are terrible, but Biden's is worse. 

To Biden's credit, he has been much more popular than Trump for most of his presidency. He only fell below Trump 21 days ago. 

A big difference between Trump and Biden is range. Trump never avg'd 45% or higher approval, and he never fell below 36%. Biden's range is 55% to 37.5%. About half of Biden's presidency has been at an avg approval that Trump never reached, although all of this is the first half of his presidency. 

Where other presidents were during this time in their presidency -- Net Approval:

1. LBJ +50.5
2. Eisenhower +48.7
3. JFK +43.2
4. Bush II +39.7
5. Bush I +34.8
6. Nixon +24.3
7. Ford +1.3
8. Clinton -1.9
9. Obama -2
10. Carter -5.3
11. Reagan -5.6
12. Trump -10.6
13. Biden -15.4

Despite this Biden frequently beats Trump in head to head matchups and generic dems outpoll generic GOP. One has to assume that a GOP not led by Trump would be seeing a certain Red Wave for both 2022 and 2024 because it certainly isn't Biden-led Democrats stiffling GOP landslide potential. 

It's interesting that, with the exception of Ford, any president that was popular at midterms was wildly popular! No president has been as unpopular as those that have been wildly popular. 

[vcczar]

Forgot Truman! He was -19 at this time in his presidency!

[MrPotatoTed]

I don’t know that approval rates actually matter that much, in our increasingly polarized world.  Especially someone like Biden — obviously he’s never going to win over the MAGA group, but he’s also never going to win over the Bernie group.  That doesn’t mean that the Bernie group is going to choose a Republican over him (or that the MAGA group wants Bernie over Biden, for that matter.)

Do I think he’s the most amazing President ever?  Of course not.  I wanted Pete.  In that sense, I may not “approve.”

 

But he’s a hell of a lot better than what we had, and he’s a hell of a lot better than what the other option is likely to be in 2024, so I’ll be voting to re-elect Joe with a smile on my face.

[Brunell]

40%! he's the most popular President since Reagan, absolute 50 state land slide.

[DakotaHale]

Where are you seeing Biden beating Trump and generic dem beating generic gop in 2024? RCP says Rs win both scenarios. 

[vcczar]

1 minute ago, DakotaHale said:

Where are you seeing Biden beating Trump and generic dem beating generic gop in 2024? RCP says Rs win both scenarios. 

FiveThirtyEight which uses all of the polls that RCP uses plus many that they don't. 538 also grades the polling agencies for accuracy and makes it's avg's based on the total polls and general quality of those polls. RCP really hasn't evolved in what polls it uses in years, which leaves out a lot of polls, especially those trying to learn from the mistakes of older pollsters.