Keller @ Large: Biden is becoming more popular as he delivers on promises
BOSTON - "He's a great man. He's a great president. I can't wait for him to get down here. I need his help; I want his help!" gushed Florida's Democratic nominee for governor during a CNN interview.
Who on earth was Charlie Crist talking about?
It couldn't possibly be Joe Biden, whose 30-something approval ratings have sent endangered Democrats like New Hampshire's Sen. Maggie Hassan scrambling for distance with ads that claim she's "pushing Joe Biden to release more of our oil reserves."
But that was last spring. These days, gas prices are dropping, inflation may be easing, and with his announcement of student loan forgiveness, Biden has now made good on a string of key campaign promises in recent weeks.
What do we really want from our politicians?
New polls suggest the answer may not be all that complicated.
The squeakiest wheels tend to make it onto the evening news, but it seems doing what you promised is what lots of people crave.
Governor Charlie Baker has his critics, but he vetoes tax hikes and cools it on the partisanship, and his reward is sky-high numbers.
Attorney General Maura Healey sued the Trump administration early and often. She draws the best job approval numbers of any local Democrat.
Meanwhile, half the country has a negative view of the too-often gridlocked parties in Congress. And Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who's been singlehandedly stalling the Biden agenda until just recently? In a new national poll, he was one of the nation's least popular pols with just 11 percent approval.
What a difference a little delivering can make. Said Crist: "Thank God Joe Biden's the president of the United States today, thank God for that."
It seems obvious that keeping your promises would be popular, but there's more to public approval than that. Staying out of trouble helps. And so does avoiding overexposure.
Baker may be on the news a lot, but he's not in-your-face the way, for instance, presidents often are.
Biden is not out of the woods yet, far from it. But if he keeps delivering the bacon and economic pressures ease up, Crist may not be the only candidate looking to bring him in for a photo op.
