Just how popular is Joe Biden? The fivethirtyeight.com job approval average (rounded) puts him at 54 percent approval to 40 percent disapproval or +14. This is a significant improvement from where President Trump was at this stage of his presidency (45 percent approve to 49 percent disapprove), but lower than Pres. Obama who was enjoying approval ratings in the 60s at this point in his first term.
But, looking at the individual polls, you see a pretty wide range of job approval ratings. For example, the most recent CBS/YouGov poll shows Biden at an impressive 62 percent approval to 38 percent disapproval (+24). In comparison, a Marist/PBS/NPR poll has Biden's approval rating at a more anemic +7 (49 percent to 42 percent). It could be easy to call the YouGov poll an outlier and move on, but as Jennifer Agiesta, the polling director at CNN, noted on Twitter: "Looks to me like there's a mode effect in Biden approval ratings. Recent online high-quality polls average 58% approval, phone ones 51% approval."
Even so, Agiesta notes, Biden's disapproval ratings show
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