For nearly 50 years, one U.S. president has stood above all others as an unqualified failure.

That man was the late Jimmy Carter, a sad sack whose sole term in the Oval Office would eventually become a comforting reminder to all subsequent presidents that no matter how bad things got, at least they weren’t America’s 39th.

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No longer!

Former President Joe Biden is destined to inherit Carter’s ignominious legacy, becoming, in the modern era, the new avatar for presidential incompetence and impotence. That he has managed this despite enjoying the unqualified support of the news and entertainment industries is a testament to his preternatural ability to, as former President Barack Obama once said, “f*** things up.”

There are the little things that point to Biden’s destiny as the new Carter, a president for whom nothing nice can be said of his administration, for which everything he attempted ended in disaster, and for whose “leadership” neither the country nor the international community benefited.

There’s the fact that Biden’s dunce of a running mate, former Vice President Kamala Harris, is doing the rounds now on television, hawking a new book in which she explicitly criticizes her former boss. That Harris, whose years in D.C. politics before she was nominated as vice president could be counted on one hand, is publicly criticizing a man who has been in the nation’s capital since she was 8 years old, suggests a great deal about the former president’s current standing within his own party. Harris apparently fears no reprisal from Biden or leadership, and that says a lot.

That neither Democratic leadership nor anyone of real influence has mounted a defense for him says even more.

There are also these telling tidbits from the Wall Street Journal:

Biden, 82 years old, is charting a postpresidency that is less lucrative than what he’d expected when he left office. Options for big jobs are limited by his advanced age, his unpopularity in Democratic circles and companies—concerned about retribution from President Trump—that aren’t offering speaking gigs. His own allies have grown critical of his presidency, most recently former Vice President Kamala Harris, who in a new book says the Democratic Party was reckless to allow Biden to run a second time. 

The result for Biden is a leaner next chapter that lacks the well-funded foundations, plans for exquisite libraries and full calendar of paid speeches his peers enjoyed. 

Instead of private jets, Biden has been spotted with a book on his lap in the first-class cabin of American Airlines flights or (talking) aboard Amtrak’s quiet car. Paid speaking appearances can range from $300,000 to $500,000, people briefed on the matter said. Takers are limited, and at least one organization tried to negotiate below that range, some of the people said.

Even former President George W. Bush, who enjoyed a modest “poll bounce” after leaving office in 2009, didn’t experience this sort of trouble following his final term. Then again, Bush is no Biden. Lucky him.

It gets worse for the man who promised to “restore the soul of the nation.”

Of all the signs pointing to Biden’s future as the new Carter, perhaps none are so suggestive as the fact that voters prefer Biden’s predecessor and successor, President Donald Trump, on several key issues, despite having an even lower opinion of the Queens businessman.

Where voters are 41% and 57% approval/disapproval for Trump, they’re 43% and 54% approval/disapproval for Joe Biden, according to Gallup, which has current favorability data on both men.

Yet, when it comes to the issues that move voters to the polls, they prefer Trump to Biden. The most remarkable thing is that Trump does this while also being underwater with voters. This is hardly a reason for Trump to celebrate, but what does it say of Biden?

On the economy, voters are happier now with Trump (41%) than they were with Biden at the end of his term (38%), according to a RealClearPolitics polling average. Trump also polls higher now on foreign policy (42% to 35%), immigration (47% to 33.5%!), inflation (39% to 34%), and crime (47% to 38%) than Biden did in his last year as president. On the matter of crime specifically, CNN found voters overwhelmingly prefer Trump to Biden. Public support for Trump’s handling of crime went from -13 in March 2024, according to an assessment of his first term, to +1 in August, a fairly stunning rebuke of the “empathy” president. Along with CNN’s data on Trump’s net approval on crime, the network’s data also show that Biden’s favorables last year for his approach to crime hovered at around -26. That’s a wide gap.

There’s also the relevant matter that, though his numbers are less than stellar, Trump enjoys a slightly higher approval rating now than he did when he left office in 2021, amid a riot, shouts for former Vice President Mike Pence’s head, and an impeachment trial. It’s enough to make one suspect that Biden was such a massive flop as president that voters were almost happy to welcome back the “American carnage” candidate.

For every president between Carter and the present, there has typically been at least one issue or policy matter in which even a slim majority of voters had something positive to say. Biden appears to have no such luck — from his hands-off approach to crime to his head-in-the-sand approach to inflation, to his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden administration seems hard-pressed to find admirers. 

In fact, when it comes to overall approval for job performance, 54% of voters believe Trump is doing a better job than Biden did as president, according to a new August Harvard CAPS-Harris survey. 

In other words, voters view the Biden presidency as an unmitigated disaster, even if they hold a higher opinion of him than the current chief executive.

VOTERS DON’T TRUST DEMOCRATS TO RUN A LEMONADE STAND

A nice guy, sure, but a rotten president.

That sounds familiar.

Becket Adams is a writer in Washington and program director for the National Journalism Center.