Why Biden’s Base Is In Distress

Playbook previews new focus group research to find out in real time how Americans are processing events in 2022:

• A preoccupation with inflation and crime.
• Exhaustion with pandemic restrictions.
• Cynicism about politics.
• Deep frustration that President Joe Biden and Democrats have failed to deliver on their early promises.
• Sympathy for Ukraine mixed with a lack of enthusiasm for Biden spending too much time and money on the issue.
• Ambiguity about how important Jan. 6 should be for Democrats in the midterms.

“These sentiments are captured in recent polling: Biden’s decline in approval from Black voters and millennials has been well documented, as of course has the rise in importance of inflation, crime and pandemic fatigue.”

“But watching the three-and-a-half hours of conversations, you notice a yawning gap between what Democrats here in D.C. are saying and what their most loyal voters are experiencing outside the Beltway.”