James Carville blame voters’ ‘wrong’ attitude on the economy for Biden’s bad polling
Democratic Party strategist James Carville and other experts claimed that voters’ "stubbornly" bad impressions of President Biden’s handling of the economy will keep his polls low, even if the economy recovers.
Carville and others told Politico that American voters seem to have made their judgment on the economy as poor and that judgment is not budging.
Politico wrote that Biden’s predicament with voters on the economy is that although inflation is slowing, and Biden seems to be achieving a "so-called soft landing" on the economy, it "might not mean a lick to voters."
"Low unemployment, real wage growth and a fast-growing economy should be providing a boost to the public’s perception of Biden’s economic policies. It hasn’t, as countless polls demonstrate. But with inflation still climbing — albeit at a much slower rate than last year — affordability remains a top concern for voters," Politico wrote.
Carville, who was top campaign strategist for President Clinton's campaign, told the outlet "people have just rendered a judgment and are not revisiting the judgment."
The strategist claimed the economy appears to be doing better under Biden at the moment and slammed voters for getting it wrong and potentially punishing Biden as the election approaches.
"People’s attitudes about the economy are pretty stubbornly in the wrong place," Carville said.
While Carville dings voters for not giving Biden enough credit on the economy, he has said voters' concerns about Biden's age are justified.
Politico spoke to Monmouth University’s polling director Patrick Murray, who stated, "We do know he is NOT getting credit for good jobs numbers and decent growth BECAUSE of inflation." He also asked, "If unemployment goes up, will Biden get enough credit for deflation that jobs and growth don’t matter to voters? We just don’t know."
"On the inflation front, at this point, I think the die has already been cast," Goldman Sachs chief U.S. economist Alec Phillips told the outlet. "There’s probably not that much of a difference between, 2.5 percent inflation and 3.5 percent inflation from a political perspective."
J.P. Morgan’s Kelly argued that negative reporting on the economy is causing people to sour on Biden even if they’re not feeling the hardships themselves.
"There is a great disconnect between how people perceive their own personal circumstances and how they perceive how the nation as a whole is doing," he said, adding, "I think a lot of it has to do with the way people imbibe information in 2023. And if that’s the case, it doesn’t matter what the economy does next year. People are going to think the economy is awful."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.