President
Joe Biden
has been on the road, underscoring what he considers his most noteworthy achievements to the public, but it is unclear whether voters are listening.
Even polling demonstrates the public’s belief Biden has achieved “not very much” or “little or nothing” during the first two years of his
administration
, a troubling development before
an anticipated 2024 reelection campaign announcement
.
BIDEN, THE OLDEST PRESIDENT, REACHES OUT TO THE OLDEST VOTERS
Biden has done “more wrong things than right things,” according to Republican strategist John Feehery, citing the president’s
COVID-19 vaccine mandate
and
gun reforms
.
“People are struggling with high inflation still, high gas prices again, failing school, and too much crime,” Feehery told the Washington Examiner. “So, in my view, his accomplishments might make his staff happy, but they haven’t done squat for the average American.”
“Families are poorer, real wages and savings are down, our cities are less safe, our energy reserves are depleted, and our border is in chaos, but all Biden does is continue to deflect blame and divide without offering solutions,” the
Republican National Committee
added.
“No wonder Americans overwhelmingly say they are worse off since Biden took office,” RNC spokesman Nainoa Johsens said.
With a Biden reelection announcement likely to prompt voters to ask themselves whether they and the country are better off under the president,
an ABC News/
Washington Post
poll
this week echoes Feehery and the RNC’s complaints. The poll found 62% of the public believes Biden has achieved “not very much” or “little or nothing” two years into his first term, despite the president traveling to Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin since last year’s midterm elections alone.
This is not the first time Biden has not been acknowledged for what he has claimed as one of his achievements.
A Morning Consult/
Politico
poll
from 2021 found that only two-fifths of registered voter respondents recognized the president had signed a more generous child tax credit into law through the Democrats’ $1.9 trillion coronavirus spending package.
It is difficult to take credit for policy or legislative achievements unless they directly affect people’s lives, Feehery conceded. For instance, many of the $550 billion infrastructure agreement’s projects are “not going to be built for years,” according to the strategist.
“Everything else is inside baseball,” he said.
Biden told House Democrats in 2021 he was cognizant of the challenge, telling lawmakers during a phone call that former President
Barack Obama
“paid a price” in 2010 because “we didn’t adequately explain what we had done” with the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. At the same time, Biden’s agenda has been overshadowed by, for example, the deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from
Afghanistan
to Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine
, and not helped by the president’s tendency to lose his train of thought.
One senior Democratic official remained confident in Biden and his record: “Joe Biden is working to deliver for everybody, blue-collar workers and families, and bringing back manufacturing jobs and creating millions of jobs.”
With White House communications director Kate Bedingfield set to depart at the end of the month and be replaced by Ben LaBolt, who also has campaign experience, Biden’s strategists could adopt another approach. But until then, the president repeated lines from his “Let’s Finish the Job” State of the Union address before a Friday meeting with governors. Biden, Vice President
Kamala Harris
, and other administration officials will additionally hold about 30 post-State of the Union events in 20 states during the coming weeks.
“I think success for all of us, Democrats and Republicans, in part can be measured by not what else we get done or passed, but whether we’re able to implement what we’ve already done,” Biden told the governors too. “I know it’s a problem having to deal with all the money we’re sending you,” he quipped.
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Middlebury College political science professor Bertram Johnson agreed, contending, “what matters is more achievements than salesmanship.”
“We may be in a period that is so polarized that little will change Biden’s polling numbers one way or the other,” he said. “There’s a lot of money from already-passed legislation that has yet to be spent, though, so it’s possible he could still benefit.”
