A new poll finds that a strong majority of Americans and even a majority of Democrats believe that President Joe Biden is either a “puppet” for or is being heavily influenced by former President Barack Obama.
The poll favors those who have been critical of Obama’s decision to remain in or near Washington after he served two terms in the White House.
Most recent presidents have returned to their respective homes after serving in the Oval Office
Former President Ronald Reagan returned to California after his two terms while former Presidents George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush each returned to Texas.
Former President Donald Trump also went to his Mar-a-Lago home and resort in January 2021 when his term was up.
However, the country’s two most recent Democratic former presidents each remained relatively close to Washington.
Bill Clinton never returned to Arkansas when his time was up while Obama bought a home in Washington and another one in Martha’s Vineyard — both places he had no connection to prior to his career in politics.
According to a Rasmussen Reports survey conducted this past week, a majority of Americans believe Obama is heavily influencing the direction of the country.
Is Obama Biden’s puppet master?
Respondents were asked by the pollster if they felt Biden was merely a “puppet” for Obama or if the former president was pulling the strings in some capacity.
Sixty-three percent of likely voters agreed that Biden is not independently running his own show when asked if Obama was “influencing the policies of the Biden administration.”
A stunning 56 percent of Democrats polled answered the same way.
“A majority of voters think former President Barack Obama is influencing President Joe Biden’s administration, and agree with a GOP congressman’s claim that Biden is really a ‘puppet’ for progressives,” Rasmussen noted.
The poll appeared to back up Republican Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania, who was attacked in 2017 by MSNBC during the second month of Trump’s term after he criticized Obama for staying in Washington.
“President Obama himself said he was going to stay in Washington until his daughter graduated,” Kelly stated. “I think we ought to pitch in to let him go someplace else, because he is only there for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to run a shadow government that is going to totally upset the new agenda.”
MSNBC’s Steve Benen at the time called the comment “silly” and labeled Kelly a conspiracy theorist.
According to the Rasmussen survey and using Benin’s logic, a majority of Democrats might also be considered conspiracy theorists.
The poll also found Obama is more popular than Biden.
Fifty-two percent of those polled said they viewed Obama favorably compared to 45 percent who said they viewed Biden favorably.
Rasmussen polled 935 likely voters from Jan. 15 to Jan. 17.
The survey reported a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.
