How can it be that high, I hear you asking. With the border crisis turning rapidly into a humanitarian catastrophe and the Biden administration barely even paying anything more than lip service about it, Joe Biden’s 29% approval rating in the latest poll from liberal-leaning Quinnipiac seems too generous. In fact, Biden appears to have come out of the honeymoon phase early, with only a +6 overall and low marks in a few policy areas (via Andrew Sullivan):

As President Joe Biden approaches his 100th day in office, he receives a positive 48 – 42 percent job approval rating, with 10 percent not offering an opinion in a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea-ack) University national poll of adults released today. This compares to a February 17th poll when 50 percent approved, 38 percent disapproved, and 13 percent didn’t offer an opinion. …

On President Biden’s handling of six issues, the president receives positive scores on three, with the coronavirus response ranking at the top. He receives negative scores on his handling of the situation at the Mexican border and gun policy, and a mixed score on taxes. On Biden’s handling of …

• the response to the coronavirus: 64 percent of Americans approve, 29 percent disapprove, with 7 percent not offering an opinion;
• the economy: 50 percent of Americans approve, 42 percent disapprove, with 8 percent not offering an opinion;
• climate change: 48 percent of Americans approve, 35 percent disapprove, with 17 percent not offering an opinion;
• taxes: 45 percent of Americans approve, 42 percent disapprove, with 13 percent not offering an opinion;
• gun policy: 39 percent of Americans approve, 49 percent disapprove, with 11 percent not offering an opinion;
• the situation at the Mexican border: 29 percent of Americans approve, 55 percent disapprove, with 15 percent not offering an opinion.

The only clear win that Biden has so far is on COVID-19, and that’s mostly because Biden stuck to the Trump administration’s vaccine production and distribution plans. Biden’s been smart enough to follow that, while fibbing about not having vaccines or a distribution plan. His only innovation was the federal vaccination centers, which turned out to be a waste of time, money, and supplies. Even 30% of Republicans give Biden grudging approval for not screwing up the pandemic response, even if his experts can’t keep their stories straight on reopenings and vaccine reliability.

On the border, though, hardly anyone approves of Biden’s work. He gets 58% approval from Democrats and 56% from black voters, which is a damning-with-faint-majority support from Biden’s own party and base. In every other demographic, however, Biden’s approval doesn’t get above 35% (seniors). Among Hispanics, whom Biden courted through his immigration posturing, he gets a 27/55 approval rating on the border. It’s a disaster, and this rating can’t shock anyone who’s paying attention.

Biden’s underwater rating on gun policy might be more of a surprise. Despite — or because of — Biden’s continued pressing for more gun control, he only gets 39% approval. Democrats are more likely to support him there, but only 77/10, perhaps because he hasn’t pressed harder. However, majorities of independents (34/53), men (31/59), Hispanics (33/55), and gun-owning households (28/64) disapprove. That doesn’t look like a result of Biden being too timid on guns. In contrast, his support from urban respondents on this issue is barely above water at 48/41 — suggesting that there may be a lot less appetite for gun control in cities after the wave of violent-crime spikes over the past year.

Biden’s bad performance on the border — both in real terms and in polling — risks erosion of his standing in other areas. It looks like we’re starting to see it already.