![]() “He has the kind of force of his own personality, but it’s leavened by the facts on the ground.”ĭespite Biden’s efforts to convince the nation of its best self, doubts course through the electorate, particularly about the future of U.S. There’s nothing anyone can say to him that’s worse than what he’s already experienced, friends and staff often say.Īdd to that his long experience in government and “he’s not hit with surprises,” said Ted Kaufman, Biden’s longtime friend and a former Delaware senator. The president’s outlook is shaped in part by personal tragedy: His first wife and young daughter died in a car crash in 1972 that also injured his two sons. “It’s a terribly difficult balance, but I think he strikes it as well as anyone can,” Casey said. On other pieces of legislation, he has cut loose when it was clear he couldn’t strike a deal. The deal fell apart in spectacularly public fashion a few times, but Biden wouldn’t relent until it passed with bipartisan support. He gave the example of Biden’s billion-dollar infrastructure plan. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said Biden knows when to hold out hope and when to walk way. Those who know Biden best insist he’s a realist: It’s not that he believes things are great all the time it’s that he think there’s always room - and a path - to get better. “Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, they can’t afford rising gas and grocery prices, and real wages are down.” “Joe Biden is completely detached from reality,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said last month. Kevin Brady dismissed it as fleeting “ghost growth.” Even a basic metric like last week’s report that the economy grew again after two quarters of contraction was subject to alternate interpretations: Biden said it was evidence the country’s recovery was continuing to “power forward ” Republican Rep. “If you get carried away with it, as a politician or a president, you risk becoming detached from people’s actual experience,” Shesol said.īiden’s upbeat message is ridiculed by Republicans, whose midterm pitch is tied to a picture of a nation beset by rising crime and inflation. That’s a difficult line for any president to walk - too much Pollyanna talk can sound simply delusional. Growing numbers question whether democracy can survive - and whether their leaders can meet the moment. Now, less than a week before Election Day, the nation is in an unprecedented, newly uncertain time, marked by the punishing pandemic, economic fears and a mounting wave of hate crimes and political violence. His party saw a “shellacking” in the House. President Barack Obama tried during the 2010 midterm campaign when he was hopeful about the nascent economic recovery but mindful that so many voters were still hurting. Throughout history, leaders have tried to strike the right balance - leveling with people about the challenges at hand but also giving them cause to hope. Just 25% of Americans said the country is headed in the right direction in an October AP-NORC survey. If they can’t project hope that we can surmount our difficulties, then they’re sunk and we are, too,” sad Jeff Shesol, a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton who now runs a speechwriting and strategy firm in Washington.Īnd it’s anything but clear that Biden’s optimistic vision is breaking through. Presidents “almost have to will themselves into a sense of optimism. The fate of the nation, the fate of the soul of America, lies where it always does: with the people” “There’s nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together. “You have the power, it’s your choice, it’s your decision,“ he told voters. “I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future than I am today.“ “I truly believe we’re just getting started,” he told a crowd in Florida on Tuesday. To throngs in an auditorium or a few dozen in a weathered union hall, the Democratic president declares he’s never felt more hopeful. ![]() Syracuse, New York, or Hagerstown, Maryland. The upbeat heart of the president’s message is the same wherever he goes. Still, for all of that, Biden insisted, the nation’s best days lie ahead. Election deniers and their impact on the upcoming nationwide voting. Russia and China’s efforts to upset the world order, surging inflation at home. He ticked off challenges: Technology that’s made it easier to corrupt the truth. WASHINGTON (AP) - It was his last stop of the day on a West Coast swing, a backyard fundraiser at a TV producer’s home in Los Angeles, and President Joe Biden was telling the crowd how tough the past few years have been.
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