Joe Biden has a "Big Mac" problem
In less than a year, Americans will go to the polls. The omens for incumbent President Joe Biden are extremely poor. This can also be illustrated by hamburger prices.
The American Big Mac is something like the mother of all burgers. McDonald's introduced it in 1967 and since then the double-decker cheeseburger has gained international fame.
Above all, it is more than just a burger, but also a kind of currency. The "Big Mac Index" of the British magazine "Economist" regularly records the purchase price of the burger and is therefore a good indicator of the inflation rate in the country. When Joe Biden took office as US President in January 2020, a Big Mac cost an average of 4.82 US dollars in the USA. Most recently, in June 2023, it was USD 5.58 - an increase of around ten percent.
This may not sound like a lot, but it is increasingly ringing alarm bells in the Biden camp. This is because the high inflation of recent years has triggered fundamental scepticism towards the Biden administration among many Americans. The impression has arisen that with Joe Biden pretty much everything in life has become more expensive, whether Big Macs, houses or gasoline. It doesn't help that the Biden administration has created a record number of new jobs on the US labor market. Just under 14 million by the end of October 2023 since taking office.
The crucial point: the spectre of inflation has ensured that real wages have fallen by around one percent under Biden. Under his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, they had risen by three percent. The Biden camp will look with concern at former US presidents Jimmy Carter and George Bush, who had even worse figures for real wages. They both had to leave the White House after four years.
"We'll remember in November"
The list of bad omens for Biden is long. Even if all the major US media houses and newspapers point out that polls are ultimately meaningless a year before the election, there are other indicators that are causing Democrats to lose sleep.
For Biden suddenly also has a problem with approval among younger people in the country. Since the brutal attacks on Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas, young people in the USA have been taking to the streets and positioning themselves in support of the Palestinians. At the same time, most young Americans criticize Biden's support for Israel. At a demonstration in Washington, protesters held up signs reading "We'll remember in November" or "You lost my vote, Genocide Joe". This is intended to threaten the president, who has been vilified as "Genocide Joe", with not getting the votes of the pro-Palestine faction in the presidential elections in November 2024.
Biden loses the votes of younger voters
The displeasure of the young population can also be expressed in figures. According to a survey by Quinnipiac University, 74% of Democratic voters under the age of 35 sympathize with the Palestinians and only 16% with Israel. 69 percent of young Democratic voters believe that Biden's support for Israel is inappropriate.
In 2020, Biden's lead over Donald Trump among young voters under 35 was still over 20 percentage points. According to figures from the Quinnipiac poll, this lead has shrunk to well under ten percentage points.
In addition to young voters, Biden is also at risk of losing the Muslim vote in the USA. US columnist Shadi Hamid wrote on X a few days ago that he had spoken to four Arab relatives and friends over the Thanksgiving holidays. "All four said they will not vote for Biden in 2024. They want to abstain, even if it ends up benefiting Trump."
Trump won in 2020 because he was able to present a good alternative to Trump. "Electability" is what they call it in the USA. Whether it's Israel or hamburgers, Biden doesn't look particularly electable to many people in the country right now.
- Despite the strong support for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election among young voters under 35, his approval rating among them has significantly decreased due to his support for Israel during the conflict with Hamas, as shown by a survey conducted by Quinnipiac University.
- The tension between Israel and Hamas has become a divisive issue in the US, with many young Americans expressing their disapproval of President Biden's stance, leading to signs like "We'll remember in November" and "You lost my vote, Genocide Joe" being displayed at protests.
- The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has also affected the Muslim vote in the US, with US columnist Shadi Hamid reporting that four of his Arab relatives and friends will not vote for Biden in the 2024 presidential election due to his Israel policy, which they believe is unfavorable to Palestinians.
Source: www.ntv.de
