No letup in Biden polling doldrums

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President Biden's standing with Americans remains in negative territory heading into the final few weeks of 2021.

The president stands at 43% approval and 51% disapproval in a NPR/Marist national survey released on Thursday. A day earlier, a national poll from Monmouth University indicated a 40% approval and a 50% disapproval. Both surveys were conducted in recent days.

An average of all the most recent national polls compiled by Real Clear Politics puts Biden’s approval at 42% and his disapproval at 52%. The average included a large survey from The Wall Street Journal conducted last month that had the president well underwater, at 41%-57%.

NEARLY HALF SAY BIDEN'S ACTIONS NEGATIVELY IMPACTING AMERICANS TOP CONCERNS

While Biden’s numbers remain in the red, most surveys suggest that his domestic agenda is still popular. Many of the latest polls indicate majority support for the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package the president signed into law last month, and for Biden’s nearly $2 trillion social and human infrastructure and climate change combating spending bill – which passed the House last month.

President Biden signs the "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" during an event on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, Nov. 15, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Lee Miringoff, Marist College Institute for Public Opinion director, told Fox News that Biden’s "not being connected to his polices" and he’s "not seen as leading the bully pulpit."

And the latest surveys also indicate a growing number of Americans don’t see the efforts of the Biden administration and congressional Democrats as helping to combat the rise in inflation, which is climbing as a top public concern.

"One of the political problems with Biden’s spending plans is that they don’t seem all that relevant to the vast majority of Americans," Monmouth University Polling Institute director Patrick Murray highlighted.

BIDEN AND DEMOCRATS NOT GETTING ANY BOUNCE FROM INFRASTRUCTURE PACKAGE

And Marist Poll director Barbara Carvalho noted that the Biden administration and congressional Democrats are "not connecting the dots between concern about inflation and what's happening in Washington, either with the infrastructure bill or Build Back Better." 

In this image made through a window, President Biden talks on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Miringoff sees red flags for the White House and Democrats in the latest numbers. "He’s (Biden) got his work cut out for him," he emphasized. "Obviously these are not the kind of numbers Democrats are going to celebrate."

Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low to mid 50s during his first six months in the White House. But the president’s numbers started sagging in August in the wake of Biden's much criticized handling of the turbulent U.S. exit from Afghanistan and following a surge in COVID-19 cases this summer among mainly unvaccinated people.

Gas prices grow along with inflation as this sign at a gas station shows in San Diego, California, on Nov. 9, 2021.  (REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo)

The plunge in the president’s approval was also fueled by the rise this summer and autumn in consumer prices, and to a lesser degree the surge this year of migrants trying to cross into the U.S. along the southern border with Mexico.

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The presidential approval rating has long been a much-watched indicator ahead of the midterm elections, and Biden's flagging numbers could spell major trouble for the Democrats as they try to hold on to their razor-thin majorities in the House and Senate in the 2022 elections.

Biden's current numbers are in worse shape than then-President Obama's approval ratings in 2009 and 2010, ahead of the Democrats' disastrous 2010 midterms. And they're nearly as negative as then President Trump's approvals in 2017 and 2018, ahead of the blue wave the Democrats rode in 2018 to convincingly win back the House in the 2018 midterms.