In the coming weeks, Biden will travel more inside the country and stress that Russia's invasion isn't just a crisis for Russia, but for the United States as well.
Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic pollster, said that voters are getting a little fatigued.
Lake said it was important for the president to explain his record and promise to do more in the seven months remaining before the elections.
They don't know what's in the infrastructure package. They don't know the full extent of the rescue package. She said that they don't know the executive orders that he has taken on inflation and the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law.
The scope of Biden's presidency will be affected by Democrats' ability to keep control of at least one chamber of Congress. The White House knows it needs to show Americans that it is trying to do more, even at the margins, and that it needs to hammer home Biden's accomplishments.
The war in Europe will continue to dominate Biden's time, but aides don't want him to pay too much attention to it. Some of Biden's advisers believe they only need to look across the Atlantic to find a sign of a president who is focused too much on global diplomacy and not enough on domestic pocketbook issues. Many French voters think that French PresidentEmmanuelMacron neglected domestic issues while trying to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, leading to a tight poll numbers heading into the presidential election later this month.
As it looks to focus on domestic issues, the White House wants to take action on kitchen table issues of inflation. This month, Biden issued executive orders allowing the use of an ethanol blend this summer to lower gas prices and to jumpstart a new regulation that would lower health insurance costs for millions. The sale of oil and gas drilling leases on federal lands was halted last week.
After going overseas to address the conflict in Ukraine, Biden boarded Air Force One to promote the steps he has taken to battle inflation and the economic impact of that war. He traveled to Iowa last week to promote an effort to lower gas prices.
He also unveiled a finalized regulation to curb the rise in gun violence across the country, an event that came roughly a week after a mass shooting in Sacramento, Calif., and one day before a man opened fire on a Brooklyn subway, injuring 10. Biden will visit New Hampshire, Oregon and Washington this week to highlight new infrastructure projects and cost-saving efforts for families.
He is expected to unveil a police reform executive action and take another shot at passing a revised version of his Build Back Better proposal aimed at fighting climate change and cutting health care costs.
Biden's aides want him to hit the road to show that he is aware of Americans' struggles. He has limited tools to deal with rising gas and food prices. There is no legislative path forward for gun control, citizenship for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, and voting rights due to Republican opposition and Democratic resistance.
Biden's job approval ratings are not improving and the re-emphasis on domestic affairs comes at a bad time. The president has received high marks from foreign policy experts, fellow world leaders and even some Republicans for his handling of the war in Europe, and unemployment is at its lowest level in more than 50 years. Inflation, though a global trend, has soured Americans on the economy and his handling of it.
Biden's poll numbers with critical Democratic base voters are worrisome. A Marist poll found only 34 percent of Gen Z and millennial voters approved of Biden's job performance, and a Marquette Law School poll found that the percent of Black voters who approve of Biden's handling of the presidency had dropped by 12 points.
Cleaver said a segment of the Democratic base blamed Biden for Republican recalcitrance. Cleaver said that black voters criticized Biden for his inability to pass voting rights legislation. Joe Manchin is the Democratic senator who is most opposed to the reform of the filibuster.
It would be a huge lift if a smaller version of Biden's plan was passed. Selling what Democrats have already done is equally important.
I wish we could put up signs all over the country to let people know we are rebuilding the nation, said Cleaver.
Democrats believe the party's fortunes will rise and fall on voters' views of the economy. Lake said that more travel by Biden to key swing states is necessary. She told Biden to tell stories about his dad's unemployment forcing his family to move. When you rely on messaging from economic statistics, economic studies and data, that message gets lost.
The need to respond to outside forces scuttled previous efforts for Biden to hit the road to promote his economic agenda. The current portfolio is likely to be mostly reactive, with aides anticipating a sharp rise in Covid cases and an increase in migrants at the southern border.
The president has taken further action on his economic agenda for the American middle class, despite the fact that he was against the invasion of Ukraine.
If Democrats are unable to pass the rest of Biden's economic proposals before November, their best chance of maintaining some power in Congress is to reset the focus domestically and to convince voters that they helped the economy recover.
Democrats have one political communications priority now that they have been in power, and that is to convince voters that things are better because of their time in power. We won't if they don't.
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