So the economy is a tricky question under Trump.
We lost the trade war with China long before the election. The pandemic was a hit to the economy independent of Trump.
Part of the political calculus is how things are perceived, which is reflected in this popularity topic. Clinton got elected with the absurdly simple question, "Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?" GHWB bore little to no responsibility for any hardships people had, but Clinton sold people on the idea that it didn't matter. (And alot of gun owners stayed home that first cycle.)
Let's even set aside whether Trump's policies were "good" or "bad." People voting did not perceive themselves to be better off.
Hey now, I admire Carter as a person. I wasn't old enough to vote for him in '76 (not even particularly close), but I do remember that election. I also read several biographies of him and watched him as former POTUS. We filter Carter's qualities through the prism of what we've seen in him for the 40 years after his 4 year term. (By the way, how crazy is it that his term ended 40 years ago!)
Now, very few of us could measure up to the kind of PERSON Carter is/was, and Biden is unlikely to do that. But, his role... his characteristics (though perhaps not character)... are an echo of Carter's at that time. That's my point.
Carter botched the hostage rescue, exacerbated an energy crisis, watched passively as the Sovs invaded Afghanistan (which, in retrospect, might've been brilliant) and was implicated in banking corruption. His Camp David accords may or may not have been a good idea. He wasn't a very good POTUS.
But he seemed safe at the time.
