Keller: Biden’s approval ratings soar after withdrawal, forcing Trump to seek direction

The views expressed below are those of Jon Keller and not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.

BOSTON — WBZ-TV political analyst Jon Keller said that as support grows for President Joe Biden, who dropped out of the presidential race, former President Donald Trump is searching for a direction to go.

Dropping works wonders for Biden

“They threw (Joe Biden) out, and that was wrong,” Trump said in a recent campaign speech. “But it was also unfair to me. I spent $100 million fighting a guy who won.”

Why is Trump still talking about a candidate who is no longer in the race? Maybe he misses the good old days when he had President Biden on the ropes.

And no wonder. Biden’s successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, has erased Trump’s lead and — according to a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll — most of the bad vibes voters had about Biden’s economy and Biden himself.

The resignation seems to have done wonders for Biden’s image, boosting his approval ratings to their highest level in years. “Independent women’s overall support is over 50%,” notes Dave Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. “That’s 58% of overall support, and independent women were the demographic that prevented a red wave in 2022.”

Trump remains in trouble

And while Trump had hoped that comparing his term to Biden’s would be an asset, the Democratic convention’s attacks on Trump’s record seem to have helped blunt that tactic. “It came from 100 different speakers from different backgrounds saying how bad things were under Trump and how much better things were going to be under Kamala Harris,” Paleologos says. “So that particular narrative, that tool, or that weapon, has been taken away or invalidated.”

Leaving Trump to fret and complain. “If we didn’t have the debate, he’d still be there,” he says. “Can you imagine if we didn’t have the debate? Why the hell did I debate him?”

Paleologos suggests a major adjustment is needed: “Wayne Gretzky said you have to go to where the puck is going to be, not where it was. And Trump, for some reason, is slow to get the message across.”

And that could be the key to Tuesday’s all-important Harris-Trump debate: Can Trump convincingly draw the contrasts between his performance in office and that of Biden/Harris, while keeping the focus on the candidate he’s debating rather than the one he’d still like to run against?