Americans are grappling with inflation, a new COVID-19 variant, a potential government shutdown and uncertainty about the availability of holiday gifts and goods. And President Joe Biden seems determined to let voters know this week that he is on the task.
The president returned from a Thanksgiving weekend away to an action-packed schedule meant to showcase a commander in chief who’s in command.
Monday, Biden sought to soothe the American public, delivering a speech urging calm – not panic – about the omicron variant of the coronavirus, assuring people that experts were studying the seriousness of the variant and that lockdowns and shutdowns were not on the table at this point. He met later in the day with CEOs of major American retailers to discuss how to keep items on the shelves for the December holidays.
Tuesday, the president celebrated veterans, signing four bills to help veterans and their families, including one that allows children of veterans to benefit from lower, in-state tuition rates at all public higher education institutions. He then headed to Minneapolis to tout his bipartisan infrastructure law and to argue for his “Build Back Better” social spending bill.
Political Cartoons on Joe Biden
Wednesday, Biden will launch the national HIV/AIDS strategy and participate in a Hanukkah ceremony. Thursday, the president is set to deliver a detailed plan for dealing with the pandemic this winter, and Friday, he’ll make remarks on the scheduled jobs report.
It’s an unusually busy public schedule for Biden (presidents also have meetings and work that are not public), but it was an unmistakable message from the White House. The Biden administration is on a mission to both make Americans feel like things are getting back to normal while also showing what the White House is doing to solve existing problems and keep looming troubles from spiraling out of control.
As for the pandemic, “We’re going to keep fighting this with every tool we have,” Biden told a crowd in Rosemount, Minnesota, a truck emblazoned with the words “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law” behind him. “We’re also going to keep up our historic economic growth,” he said, adding that he and other administration officials would be traveling around the country over the next few weeks to explain what projects will be funded through the infrastructure initiative.
“We’re going to help America win the competition of the 21st century,” Biden said. “We’re getting back in the game.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and members of the Biden Cabinet are also on the campaign trail for the Biden agenda, with Harris holding a virtual rally Tuesday for the “Build Back Better” social spending package now in the U.S. Senate. Harris and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday to promote the infrastructure law.
The approach appears to be working from a policy perspective: Vaccinations are up, coronavirus deaths are down, the number of people newly applying for unemployment benefits is lower than it’s been in more than a half century, and Biden has recorded record job-creation numbers. He’s also managed to get two major pieces of legislation – the coronavirus relief package and the infrastructure bill – passed, with the third leg of his domestic spending agenda approved by the House.
But it does not appear yet that Biden’s approach is working politically. He’s stayed out of the nastier Washington fights, inviting Republicans to his infrastructure law signing ceremony and urging unity and bipartisanship. That runs up against the wishes of many lower-ranking Democrats, who want Biden to get tougher and even dirtier against a GOP that has been ruthless in its attacks on Democrats.
A mathematically close but symbolically monumental loss in the Virginia governor’s race, along with a bare victory in deep blue New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, have Democrats worried about a wipeout next year. The Democrats are widely expected to lose control of the House, mainly because of structural reasons and historical trends. But an aggressive Republican Party could also retake control of the 50-50 Senate and weaken national Democrats ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Biden campaigned on the promise to make America normal again, but the advent of the delta variant – and now the omicron variant – have undercut early successes in getting shots into arms and caseloads lower.
Biden was enjoying approval ratings in the 60s for his handling of the pandemic in the early summer. That number has dropped to 43% in a recent YouGov poll and 47% in a Hill-HarrisX poll.
“It is our belief that the main driver of the President’s job approval decline since the spring has been the public loss of faith in his management of COVID,” the Democratic group NDN said in a memo discussing strategic recommendations for the party. “We fear what might happen to his standing if the US experiences a serious return of COVID this winter, as we are seeing in some European countries now and as the emergence of the new variant threatens.”
NDN said Biden should address the nation – as he plans to do again on Thursday – and “make it clear that defeating COVID will remain the number one priority of his Administration until the pandemic is actually behind us.”
With the midterms less than a year away, the clock is ticking.
