In terms of approval ratings, Joe Biden appears to have spent only a very short portion of his presidency celebrating “the best of times” before skipping straight to “the worst of times.” Scott Rasmussen (not affiliated with Rasmussen Reports) has a new set of polls out this morning that aren’t going to bring many smiles to the faces hanging out around the Oval Office. The first subject that Scott polled the country about is the one that was dominating the news until the White House and most of the mainstream media decided it was time to “move on” from it. That would be the disaster unfolding in Afghanistan. While a solid majority of Americans (64%) agree that it was time for America to end the war, few approve of the way Joe Biden decided to do it.

Thirty-one percent (31%) of voters give President Biden good or excellent marks for handling the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. A Scott Rasmussen national survey found that 46% say he did a poor job. In between are rate the president’s performance as just fair.

Sixty percent (60%) of Democrats say the president did a good or excellent job. Just 18% of Independents and 13% of Republicans agree.

The poor marks for the president come despite the fact that 64% of voters approve of the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. However, most voters (54%) disapprove of removing American troops before all Americans were evacuated.

It’s a bit shocking that a majority of Democrats are back to saying that Biden did a “good or excellent” job with the troop withdrawal. But then again, that’s probably just another sign of the deeply divided, partisan makeup of the electorate these days. As to the question of those left behind, I’m a bit taken aback by the idea that anyone could say that pulling out before all Americans were evacuated was a good idea.

Scott tossed in a related question on that subject. He asked respondents what would be the fate of those Americans left behind if a way isn’t found to evacuate them. Seventy-four percent (!) said they believed that those people would eventually be discovered by the Taliban and be “tortured or killed.” That’s basically three-quarters of the country. Who do we have out there that could possibly think that leaving Americans behind to be tortured or killed was a good plan?

A separate poll conducted by Rasmussen reflects even more buyer’s remorse among Biden voters. While his overall approval rating remains underwater, a growing number of Democrats believe that they would be better off if Bernie Sanders had won the nomination instead of Biden. And despite a ton of 2020 polling to the contrary, a fair number of them think that the socialist could have beaten Donald Trump last November.

Forty-six percent (46%) of Democrats believe that things would be better today if Senator Bernie Sanders had become president instead of Joe Biden. A Scott Rasmussen national survey found that only 10% of Democrats disagree and believe things would be worse with a President Sanders. Thirty-seven percent (37%) believe things would be about the same.

Among all voters, 29% think things would be better, 24% say worse, and 37% about the same.

The survey also found that 41% of voters nationwide think it’s likely Sanders could have defeated President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. However, 46% consider it unlikely and 13% are not sure.

That survey probably says more about the current state of the Democratic Party than it does about Biden himself. Even with all of the leftist, socialist paradise promises that Biden has been pushing Congress to deliver, there are still nearly half of the Democrats out there who think the answer would be even more socialism in the form of a Bernie Sanders presidency. Of course, since a plurality of Democrats are convinced that Sanders would have lost the general election, they’re kind of supporting the idea of a second term for Trump, whether they realize it or not.

We’re still not seeing many indications that Democrats, in general, are leaning toward pushing Biden out the door ahead of schedule. Perhaps that’s because Kamala Harris’ approval numbers are even worse than Biden’s, believe it or not. I’m getting the feeling that a lot of our fellow Americans on the left are sensing that 2022 is going to be a long year in political terms, and they’re mostly just hunkering down and waiting to see how the midterms play out. If they manage to lose the majority in either chamber, Biden’s presidency is essentially over anyway.