You’re doing a good job, President Biden, but please don’t run in 2024 | Opinion
The latest poll showing President Biden’s approval rating has jumped by a whopping 9 percentage points is good news — and bad news. The good news is that he deserved a boost in popularity, because he’s doing most things right. The bad news is that it may encourage him to run for reelection in 2024.
Biden’s approval rating has risen from 36% in July to 45% in September, according to an AP-NORC Center for Public Research poll released Sept. 15. The poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9%, comes two months before crucial midterm elections for Congress.
There are several reasons for Biden’s rising approval ratings. Despite desperate efforts by Fox News and other right-wing media to cast him as gaga after their previous claims that he’s an alleged “socialist” didn’t stick, Biden scores highly on most key issues.
Biden deserves high marks for his handling of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the biggest challenges to the Western world since World War II.
He not only repaired America’s damaged ties with Europe, which his predecessor almost destroyed by threatening to withdraw from NATO, but even enlisted traditionally neutral Scandinavian countries, Japan and South Korea to actively support Ukraine.
In addition, under Biden, a U.S. drone strike killed al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri, and the United States built upon the Trump-era diplomacy between Israel and Arab nations.
On the domestic front, the Biden administration has gotten passed key legislative packages, including a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill to rebuild roads and bridges, and to expand high-speed internet access.
Biden also pushed through the $740 Inflation Reduction Act, which sets in motion the biggest initiatives to combat climate change in U.S. history — including a massive amount of funds for green-energy innovation — and allows the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices with pharmaceutical firms, which should lower costs for beneficiaries. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that this may benefit more than 4 million older Americans.
On racism, gun safety, abortion and — yes — immigration, Biden is on the right side of the issues.
While former President Trump, who legitimized neo-Nazi and white-supremacist groups by claiming in 2017 that there are “very fine people on both sides” of the racism divide, Biden has consistently denounced America’s bigoted extremists.
Unlike most Republican politicians, Biden supports gun-safety measures to reduce mass shootings. He calls for a much-needed ban on automatic weapons capable of killing dozens of people in a matter of seconds.
On abortion, he supports women’s right to choose. The conservative-majority Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow states to rule on abortion, thus allowing Republican-led states to ban abortions, needs his administration’s activism on this issue more than ever.
On immigration, while the numbers of migrants has soared in recent months because of an influx of Venezuelan and Cuban asylum seekers, the United States desperately needs more — not fewer — immigrants. America’s population is getting older, and there are not enough young people to pay for the retirement of future retirees. U.S. unemployment is at record lows, and there are “We are hiring” signs everywhere.
Perhaps most important, Biden — unlike Trump — does not represent a threat to America’s democracy. While his predecessor continues to falsely claim that he won an election that was certified by Congress and affirmed by the Supreme Court, more than 60 lower courts and his own attorney general, Biden is no American Hugo Chavez.
Granted, you can make the case that U.S. inflation is high, although that’s a global phenomenon largely because of COVID-19 shutdowns and the Ukraine war. If it’s any consolation, China and Europe’s economies are doing worse than America’s.
You can also blame Biden, among other things, for a bad execution of our long-delayed exit from Afghanistan.
Still, Biden deserves his improving approval rate.
However, he should drop any idea of running for reelection in 2024. He would be 82 by the time he begins his second term and 86 by the time he finishes it. He has had COVID-19, and few jobs in the world accelerate the aging process more than the presidency.
Biden should not allow his new approval ratings to go to his head. Instead, he should make room for a new generation of centrist Democrats, and he should go down in history as the good “transition” president he promised to be.
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This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 5:21 PM.