Ten days ago, I wrote that Joe Biden had gambled his presidency on his decision to mandate Covid-19 vaccines for upward of 100 million Americans.
That’s looking like a very smart bet – as poll after poll shows clear majorities supportive of the vaccine mandate.
* A Fox News poll released over the weekend showed almost 6 in 10 Americans (58%) saying they support the federal government requiring all federal workers to be vaccinated. The same poll showed near-identical support (56%) for the government to compel all businesses with more than 100 employees to have their people vaccinated (or tested weekly).
* A CNN poll released last week showed that a majority of Americans support vaccination requirements to return to the workplace (54%), kids attending in-person classes (55%), and concertgoers and people attending sporting events (55%).
*And this from a Monmouth University poll released last week: “Most Americans support vaccine mandates for key groups mentioned in Biden’s announcement last week. This includes requiring Covid vaccines for health care workers (63%), federal employees (58%), and private contractors working for the federal government (55%).”
The simple fact is that in a deeply divided country on, well, almost everything, vaccine mandates are a clear majority winner in poll after poll.
Why? People want things back to normal – and the Delta variant has scared plenty of people straight about the dangers of not being vaccinated.
Now what? Expect President Biden – and Democratic leaders in Congress – to push hard on their vaccine mandate messaging, knowing, without a doubt, the bulk of the public is behind them. That will put Republicans in a bind, because while their base is skeptical of mandates, they, too, see the polling on the issue with the general public.
The Point: Biden’s presidency will be defined by how he is perceived to have reacted to the coronavirus pandemic. And with his vaccine mandate, he’s on very solid ground.