Everywhere you turn in Democratic circles and the progressive press, someone is offering up an excuse for President Joe Biden’s terrible poll numbers and 38% approval rating.

It’s inflation (3.1% in November).

It’s his age (turned 81 last month).

It’s those rotten Republicans and Fox News with their hysterical insistence that Biden should be impeached because he has a son whose life is a mess.

Biden Has Never Been Popular

None of those theories gets to the core truth about the American public’s refusal to embrace Biden for his performance as president.

For that, you have to read Politico columnist Jack Shafer’s piece titled “The Media Is All Wrong About Biden’s Poor Polling.”

Analyzes Shafer:

“Could it be that it’s not policy or circumstances that voters are rejecting, but that it’s Biden? The tough truth for Biden, one that the press seems to have avoided, is that he has always been unpopular. Although he has long been in the public eye — he served avuncularly as a U.S. senator for 36 years before becoming vice president — being the toast of Delaware, which is the second smallest state and the sixth least populous, doesn’t readily convert into national acclaim. His 1988 campaign for president ended abruptly, as he dropped out of the race after three months amid a plagiarism scandal. Then in the 2008 presidential campaign, he found such low favor among voters that he placed fifth in the Iowa caucuses and then exited.”

How Did Biden Beat Trump Last Time?

That’s all true, but didn’t Biden somehow come out of nowhere in the 2020 Democratic primaries and ultimately vanquish President Donald Trump?

“Biden’s victory over Trump in the general election wasn’t a mandate on his popularity,” Schafer writes. “It was a flight to safety for a nation fed up with a meshuga president. Biden was merely the vegetable voters convinced themselves they had to eat in order to rid themselves of Trump.”

There you have it.

Biden is a broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and carrot salad with non-fat, zero-calorie dressing on the side.

The good news for American voters who cringe at the thought of a second Trump presidency is they only have to eat it one more time. Next scheduled helping: Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.