Struggling Biden attempts big reset

BLM’S MILLIONS UNACCOUNTED FOR AFTER LEADERS QUIETLY JUMPED SHIP

“For the past three months, every story and headline has been bad for Biden. This does provide him a lifeline that he absolutely needed,” said Republican strategist Doug Heye. “It provides a chance for him to talk proactively to his base, which has been demoralized, especially African American voters.”

According to Pew Research Center, just 60% of black adults now approve of Biden, even though 87% voted for him. His promise to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court could be a big boost with this voting bloc, whose enthusiasm levels will matter in this year’s midterm elections.

The Biden administration was turning its focus back to the Build Back Better Act, which had already failed in Congress, when news of the Breyer retirement broke. It immediately gave the White House something positive to focus on — Biden’s campaign promise to place the first black woman on the Supreme Court.

Doing so not only took the focus off of some of the administration’s troubles, but Democrats are hoping it can cause momentum leading into what’s looking like a brutal midterm election cycle.

“Hopefully, he makes it easy on all of us and gives us a win here,” Democracy for America CEO Yvette Simpson told McClatchy. “Considering the fact that he hasn’t really been able to deliver in a lot of ways on some of these other promises that he’s made.”

Biden has failed in passing new elections legislation and with Build Back Better, among other topics, leading to approval ratings as low as 33% in some polls. A poll average reported by RealClearPolitics shows Biden with a 40.8% approval rating versus a 53% disapproval rating.

Then, as Biden was preparing to head to Pittsburgh to speak about the bipartisan infrastructure bill, a bridge in the city collapsed, resulting in multiple injuries but no fatalities.

Biden promptly used the bridge collapse to highlight the need for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Biden signed into law last year.

“We’re relieved that so far everyone appears OK, but we’re also compelled to say that today’s bridge collapse in our home town is a catastrophic reminder that we need to invest in our nation’s #infrastructure,” the United Steelworkers union tweeted.

Biden made the case while visiting the bridge and during a speech that afternoon, saying the infrastructure bill includes $1.6 billion for bridges in Pennsylvania alone.

“We saw today when a bridge is in disrepair, it literally can threaten lives,” he said. “We’re going to rebuild that bridge along with thousands of other bridges in Pennsylvania and across the country because it’s in our interest for our own safety’s sake, and it generates commerce in a way that we can’t do now.”

But even in Pittsburgh, Biden couldn’t completely escape his woes.

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a candidate for the Senate, and Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a likely contender in the state’s gubernatorial election, skipped Biden’s steel city event touting his administration’s accomplishments, according to the Associated Press.

The campaigns for both Democrats cited scheduling conflicts, as did that of Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams when she skipped out on his Atlanta speech earlier this month. But many analysts point to Biden’s sagging poll numbers as to the real reason.

“Democrats in Pennsylvania are keeping a distance from him,” said Heye. “And there’s a reason for that.”

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While the pending Supreme Court pick and the promise of infrastructure dollars will give Biden a reprieve from his bad run, they will only go so far and last so long. The administration will hope to use them as a way to start building momentum as the year progresses.

“It’s hard to see either of these being a midterm game-changer,” said Heye. “Will his approval rating end up at 53% after this? No.”