Putting Lipstick on the Pig
Biden is unpopular but so is everybody. It's not his policies. Thus sayeth The New York Times.
Biden’s Cratering Approval Ratings
Democrats and the media (please excuse the redundancy) are in a nationwide panic over President Biden’s plunging poll numbers. But The New York Times, like the rest of the ancien regime nobility is constitutionally incapable of discerning the reasons why more and more people, as well as demographic groups that Democrats thought were in the bag for them, are rejecting Biden and his policies.
Biden is now trailing Trump by 5% — 50% to 45% — in a new national poll released last week. This includes leads in key states such as Michigan where Trump leads by 8%. Biden’s national approval levels are at historic lows. In the average of 25 national polls linked by the Times 55.6 % of those polled disapproved of Biden’s policies while only 39.1% approved, for a net underwater disapproval of 16.5%. That is a lot of ground to make up. The panic can be gauged by the increasing number of people previously believed to be sane (some of them) who are making the now-ubiquitous comparisons of Trump to Hitler.
The Times Rides to the Rescue.
As our supposed “newspaper of record” whose slogan is “All the News That’s Fit to Print,” The Times can only ignore this for only so long. But the good Democrats there obviously don’t want to damage Biden and risk boosting Trump. So, if The Times must address it, how are its loyal troops supposed to explain Biden’s massive nationwide unpopularity?
Well, you do what any farm girl would do to gussie up her pet pig. You get some lipstick and rouge for that pig.
The Times has tried to gussie up Biden’s plunging popularity by putting lipstick on that pig. It does so in a March 28 article by a fellow named German Lopez. Now, as you read this keep in mind that this is the same New York Times that recently instructed us deplorables that “It Turns Out the ‘Deep State’ Is Actually Kind of Awesome,” and that we should “rally” behind it. Talk about lipstick on a pig!
But let’s turn to Mr. Lopez and his article. Even though he looks pretty young in his Times photo,
he assures us that he is experienced as well as fair. He touts his expertise – or at least his experience – on a wide variety of topics, including politics, economics, crime, public health, the opioid crisis and the war in Ukraine. He also assures us that “My goal with every story is to uncover the truth, which requires hearing from multiple sides of a major event or issue.”
Let us look at that last part to see how he does.
Just as The Times taught us that the Deep State Is Actually Kind of Awesome, Lopez assures us that Biden’s poll numbers actually are a good thing when compared to other world leaders. With a reported 55% disapproval rating, he ranks behind several, including Trudeau of Canada (59%), the UK’s Sunak (66%), and Monsieur Macron (71%). So, to borrow a phrase from The Times, Lopez would have us believe that Biden’s disapproval numbers are “actually kind of awesome.” He’s 16 percentage points ahead of Macron. Let’s rally boys!
THE FOUR I’S
Lopez identifies four causes of the worldwide unpopularity that he says are afflicting Biden and other world leaders. He labels these “the four I’s”: inflation, immigration, inequality and incumbency.
The “four I’s.” That’s kind of a cute linguistic device, but by limiting the causes of Biden’s unpopularity to words that begin with “I” Lopez omits such causes as crime, censorship, climate craziness, war, weakness, divisiveness and dementia. This is not a good start for a Times writer who promises to address “multiple sides” of complex issues.
What Lopez and The Times actually do in their “analysis” of each major issue, is attribute Biden’s unpopularity from each of the Four I’s to forces outside poor Joe’s control — forces that are promising to take down other world leaders as well. So, you see, Biden is unpopular because of worldwide forces beyond his control. It is not his fault. That is the Times’ thesis. Let’s take a closer look at the treatment that the Times gives to each.