Outside the Beltway

Thursday’s Forum

· Thursday, February 12, 2026 · 1 comment

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FILED UNDER: Open Forum
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter and/or BlueSky.

Comments

  1. DK says:
    Thursday, 12 February 2026 at 05:49

    A year into Trump’s term, voters say Biden was better (Axios)

    President Trump has become so politically toxic that voters now say Joe Biden — whose unpopularity forced him into early retirement — did a better job as president, according to three new polls.

    Why it matters: One year in, Trump has squandered virtually every advantage that won him the presidency.

    3 New Polls Show ‘How Bad Things Have Gotten For Trump’ (Newsweek)

    A trio of national polls released over the past two weeks point in the same direction: more Americans now say Donald Trump has done a worse job as president than Joe Biden.

    …The most recent comes from The Economist/YouGov, which surveyed 1,730 U.S. adult citizens between February 6 and 9.

    …Across all three polls, the pattern is consistent: Trump struggles to command majority confidence when directly measured against Biden’s record. For analysts, this is less about any single percentage point and more about convergence. Different samples, different modes, different weighting schemes—yet the same underlying story.

    The Independent:

    …48 percent of Americans believe his predecessor Joe Biden did a better job in the Oval Office.

    The findings from Rasmussen, whose research the president routinely promotes on Truth Social whenever it casts him in a flattering light, have only 40 percent of respondents backing Trump over Biden.

    What’s more, Rasmussen head pollster Mark Mitchell posted on X (Twitter) Tuesday: “If an election were held TODAY between Trump and Biden, Biden would win.”

    …Political strategist Chris D Jackson, meanwhile, compared the Rasmussen polling with two other recent surveys from YouGov and Harvard CAPS/Harris to point out: “Three polls in one week all say the same thing. A majority of Americans believe Joe Biden was a better president than Donald Trump.”

    …Perhaps of far greater significance is that a huge 58 percent of respondents told the company they do not see the “golden age of America” that Trump promised them materializing.

    Golden Age lol

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