The question is seen as a key metric in deciding elections.
By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS – The Jerusalem Post
In 1980, Ronald Reagan asked voters: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” The question has since become a standard that Presidents running for re-election have held to.
Moreover, the figure is the highest yet recorded: the same question asked in December 2012 found that 45% of Americans felt better off than they had four years previously. In 2004, 47% of Americans felt that way, and in 1992, 38% of Americans felt that way, the lowest result on record.
The Gallup poll will make welcome reading for US President Donald Trump, who is currently around ten points behind his Democratic rival Joe Biden in the polls nationwide, although recent polls in key states such as Florida have suggested that gap is closing.
Commenting on Twitter, President Trump said: “The Gallup Poll has just come out with the incredible finding that 56% of you say that you are better off today, during a pandemic, than you were four years ago (OBiden). Highest number on record! Pretty amazing!”
“Well, if they think that they probably shouldn’t” vote for me, he told WKRC-TV in Ohio this week. “Their memory’s not very good, quite frankly.”