Unpopular Biden

Biden's popularity has decreased in the past year with a recent poll this week showing that a favorable opinion of Biden has dropped by 42% and 40% of Americans view him unfavorably; this has been his worst evaluation since the national convention. Pollsters and experts wonder what the decrease in these numbers reveal about the public's feelings on Biden and his expanding role in the government as vice president or if it's simply exaggerated by Obama's high popularity and the state of the economy. Gallup Poll Editor-in-Chief Frank Newport thinks this is a "fascinating and important question" because he hasn't been in the news with any sort of highly negative coverage since he was first sworn in and there hasn't been any type of scandal that he's been involved in. When comparing Biden with other vice presidents like Al Gore and Dick Cheney, Joe Biden is far less popular than both of them were in the first year they took office. But many observers believe that Biden's decrease in popularity is just a reflection of Obama's decline in the polls, something that was expected and even though Biden’s press coverage has been for the most part favorable he can't avoid being "playing second fiddle" to the president leaving him with a very little amount of opportunity to boost his ratings. If the people are unhappy and the government isn't doing so well, they tend to blame both the president and the vice president and as a result the president and vice president become less popular. With the economy in terrible shape this year, pollster Scott Rasmussen believes that people should focus more on important issues instead of focusing on ratings. Instead of caring more about who is more popular people should instead be more interested in what exactly the president and vice president are doing to help the nation.