Bad news for Biden as new poll finds him leading Trump

Large majorities say Trump isn't ethical, doesn't care about average Americans, and lacks the temperament to be president.

I don’t write much about polls here for the simple reason that you generally shouldn’t think much about polls. And I’m not really writing about a poll right now, though in order to make my actual point I need to start off by telling you some key findings from a new Quinnipiac poll¹ that was just released.

• Joe Biden leads Donald Trump, 49-45

• Biden’s net favorable rating is a couple points better than Trump’s²

• 49 percent of Americans say Biden is ethical while 47 percent say he is not. Only 29 percent say Trump is ethical, while 68 percent say he is not.

• A majority of Americans, 51 percent, say Biden “cares about average Americans,” while only 42 percent say the same of Trump; 57 percent say Trump does not care about average Americans.³

• 49 percent say Biden “has the kind of personality and temperament it takes to serve effectively as president,” compared to only 37 percent for Trump; 61 percent say Trump does not.

• When asked if Trump’s statement that “if re-elected he would not protect NATO allies who do not meet their NATO spending targets and he would encourage Russia to do whatever they want against those NATO allies,” 71 percent said this was a bad idea; only 18 percent said it was a good idea.⁴

So Biden is beating Trump; Biden is viewed more favorably than Trump; 68 percent of Americans say Trump is not ethical; 61 percent say Trump does not have the personality and temperament to serve effectively as president; nearly 60 percent say Trump doesn’t care about average Americans, and Trump’s batshit crazy statement that he would encourage Russia to attack NATO is quite properly seen as batshit crazy by nearly everyone. That’s a pretty terrible poll for Trump!

I bet some of you already know where this is going.

Here’s how POLITICO reported that poll:

And AXIOS:

Ah, yes: A poll in which Biden leads Trump and large majorities of Americans say Trump doesn’t care about regular people, is unethical, lacks the temperament to be a good president, and shouldn’t side with Russia over NATO is bad news for … Joe Biden.

And no, it isn’t just the headlines: Neither POLITICO nor AXIOS mentioned any of the poll findings that were bad for Trump (aside from the fact that he trails Biden in the presidential race — and, incredibly, AXIOS didn’t even mention that.) Nor did the other two news companies⁵ that had reported on the poll as of this writing.

That’s right: Every news company that has reported on the Quinnipiac poll thought it newsworthy that 67 percent of Americans say Biden is too old to be president and none of them thought it was newsworthy that 68 percent say Trump is unethical, or that 61 percent say Trump lacks the temperament to be president, or that 57 percent say he doesn’t care about regular people, or that by a margin of 71-18 Americans disagree with Trump’s let-Russia-do-whatever-it-wants platform. This despite the fact that the ethics, temperament and caring-about-people findings were included in the Quinnipiac press release that the articles were based on:

This coverage is self-evidently biased against Biden and in favor of Trump. Anyone can see that; you don’t need any expertise to understand it. It’s just simple numbers.

Anyway, like I said up top: You shouldn’t pay much attention to polls. This Quinnipiac poll just isn’t very important. But the glaring pro-Trump and anti-Biden bias evident in media coverage of this poll is important to understand. And it’s important to keep in mind as you consume other news about the candidates. News companies that hype a bad poll number for Biden while completely ignoring bad findings for Trump contained in the very same poll simply aren’t shooting straight.

The bias might not be as easy to spot in other types of stories, but you can bet it’s there. It’s there when they help Trump — who promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe, did so, and then bragged about it — by pretending that his position on abortion is ambiguous. It’s there when they portray Trump’s secret plan to ban abortion as a moderate compromise. It’s there when they downplay Trump’s ongoing efforts to incite violence — and even portray him as a “tough on crime” candidate. It’s there when they frame everything Biden does negatively.

1. People generally shouldn’t pay attention to polls and they really shouldn’t pay much attention to individual polls and they really, really shouldn’t pay much attention to individual Quinnipiac polls.

2. This is not particularly meaningful in and of itself — it’s only 2 pointes better — but I’m painting a broader picture here

3. Keep this in mind the next time you encounter yet another nonsense article about Trump’s deep and unshakable connection with the working class.

4. Even among non-college-educated whites — the voters the media keep telling us are the only people who matter — Trump’s position is a clunker: 23 say it’s a good idea and 61 percent say bad idea.

5. The Hill and the New York Daily News