‘Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?’

By Kyle Smith

Saturday, October 10, 2020

 

Fifty-six percent say yes, according to a new Gallup poll. In 2012, when Barack Obama was running for re-election, only 45 percent agreed. On the other hand, only 31 percent of Americans think the country is heading in the right direction, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. That figure has been underwater since June of 2009, when the news was that the Great Recession had ended, although it was as high as 40 percent just before the pandemic became the primary news story.  In any case, the divergence between the Gallup number and President Trump’s approval ratings suggest his personal style is not doing him any favors. But to flip that around: Should Joe Biden be elected president primarily because voters dislike Trump’s personality, it would be a huge mistake for the Democratic party to think the country is begging to be led in a completely different direction. Democrats, of course, always mistake winning an election for a mandate for massive change.