NYT Asked Voters What Kind of Animal Best Describes Joe Biden - Their Responses Were Brutal
It sounds like something out of an online personality test: What kind of animal best describes the president?
Given that this was the question asked by The New York Times — the paper in one of the most liberal corners of the country — one might think the opinions of President Joe Biden were particularly complimentary. In fact, you can easily imagine a number of people saying, “Cheetah. A svelte, super-intelligent cheetah. And anyone who says he isn’t is a bloody ageist.”
But, no, even those interviewed can’t ignore the obvious — and the results weren’t pretty.
Picture of the day (via @nytimes) pic.twitter.com/vGhh45p9mk
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) May 31, 2023
“Dinosaur.” “Hippopotamus.” “Sloth.” Ouch. And this is from a panel of five Democrats, six-self described independents and zero (0) Republicans back in May. This might indeed make up a good cross-section of the Times’ readership, but it’s not exactly a cross-section of America.
Yet, few of the people could offer nice views of President Biden’s spirit animal.
No less than two said dinosaur — one independent, and one Democrat, although the independent said it was “just because he was trying to bring back old politics — not because of his age.”
Another independent said turtle, which is kind of like a small, still-extant dinosaur that’s lived forever but doesn’t have much stamina or brain-power remaining.
Vikranth, a New Jersey-based Democrat, said Biden reminded him of a snail. Sana — another Democrat, from Illinois — went with sloth.
Others were a bit more brutal.
“A camel — the way he talks, I see the camel’s mouth moving,” said Donnia, an independent from Illinois.
“A meerkat,” said Milan, a New Hampshire independent. “Anytime it’s nice out, his head’s up, and then as soon as something goes wrong, he’s just gone again.”
“A hippopotamus,” said Jahnique, a Democrat from Delaware. “A lot of them are very violent, and a lot of them are very dangerous. They have old ways of doing things that may not always be the best course of action, like how Biden is, and they can get dangerous if they deem it necessary.”
“Goldfish, just because he doesn’t seem to have an attention span to focus on anything,” said Nick, an Iowa independent.
In fact, the only prima facie nice description of Biden came from a Democrat who compared him to the GOP mascot: “An elephant, because they live very long and they have really strong memories,” said Marquita from Florida.
You mean this gentleman?
“Because they invaded another country and annexed a significant portion of it called Crimea. He’s saying that it was President [awkward long pause] my boss. It was his fault.” pic.twitter.com/x5M6TKH4F6
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) March 5, 2020
Joe Biden appears to struggle to remember his FEMA administrator’s name pic.twitter.com/DPRIjiLOQ3
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 22, 2021
Whoops: Biden forgets the name of the Pentagon, as well as the name of his secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin pic.twitter.com/ZtcgHLBIAO
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 8, 2021
Panel moderator Kristen Soltis Anderson then asked Sana about her characterization of Biden as a “sloth.”
“Because he’s slow, honestly,” she said.
“There’s been many times where he’s just forgotten things. He’s been caught so many times on camera with just mumbo jumbo coming out of his mouth.”
However, the most telling graphic may have been this one:
That’s right: Out of 11 people interviewed by one of the most liberal papers in all of America, not a single person could raise their hand to say that Biden was a strong leader or shared their values — even when they could find some people who were willing to go on record to say he was [snicker] intelligent.
And yes, this may have been a few months prior, but it speaks to the uphill climb Biden faces. These aren’t opinions that are formed in a flash, for one. The poll was taken over halfway through Biden’s term. And, perhaps most importantly, the kind of behavior that caused people to say that Biden was a sloth or a snail isn’t going to get any better as time goes on.
In a more serious vein, an NBC News poll in June found that over 43 percent of Democrats were concerned about Biden’s physical and mental health — up from “one-in-five Democrats” who were concerned before the 2020 election. If he’s elected for another term, that would mean the president would leave office at age 86. At age 80, Americans — including plenty of Democrats — already don’t think he’s up to the job as it is.
It’s only gotten worse over the past few years. It doesn’t get much better once you reach the “sloth” or the “snail” stage, especially since Biden will have to campaign from somewhere besides his basement this time.
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