President Biden linked arms with his two Democratic predecessors at a campaign fundraiser in New York City Thursday night, saying they understand the situation he faces like few others.2 It will be a public show of support from others.
But in one important respect he will be alone.
Of the recent Democratic triumvirate in the White House, Mr. Biden has amassed the most extensive list of legislative accomplishments, historians, political strategists and policy experts say, but the one with the most Not evaluated.
In his first term with a deeply divided Congress, Mr. Biden introduced legislation that would provide $1.9 trillion to fight the pandemic, $1 trillion in infrastructure spending and $370 billion to fight climate change, as well as the first gun control measures in 28 years. signed. That's a list that outperforms former Democratic presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who are scheduled to join them in New York on Thursday. Despite this, Biden's approval rating is the lowest of the three. Voters broadly approve of some of Biden's key policies, but are far more pessimistic about the future. And they have no confidence in his ability to serve a second term.
“His biggest problem, as we've seen, is not so much his ability to get things done, but to put together a message that will reach the average American, no matter where they live, whether it's a red state or a nation. His ability lies in his ability,” Leon Panetta, who served as Clinton's chief of staff and served in the Obama administration's cabinet, said of Biden.
This central political contradiction reflects the unique circumstances of the Biden era.
Biden is running in the most turbulent political climate the country has seen in modern times, with the pandemic posing a major threat, including the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and Supreme Court. Since then, he is seeking re-election in his first presidential election. The ruling overturns a half-century-old constitutional right to abortion.
Biden's predicament also highlights how deeply Americans have lost faith in politics and government since the Clinton and Obama years took office.
Rahm Emanuel, Obama's first chief of staff and now Biden's ambassador to Japan, said the president and the U.S. government have never regained the trust they had before the Iraq war and the 2008 financial crisis. Both were considered seminal events for many citizens. However, he added that no public official was charged with involvement in any of the incidents.
“Before the Iraq war, before the financial collapse, it was one era, and then Obama and Biden are operating in another era,” Emanuel said.
Mr. Emanuel said he asked Mr. Obama to take financial reform ahead of the health care law in order to demonstrate the government's power and give bankers what he called “Old Testament justice.” The president pursued health care instead.
The impact of that choice, Emanuel argued, reshaped American politics for years to come.
“These two moments will spark an era of anger, and the entire system will suffer public anger and mistrust,” he said. “After that, you won't be able to give me a politician who is really appreciated or a politician at the national level.”
Of course, presidents rarely receive widespread recognition for their accomplishments while in office. There is a pattern to presidential election nostalgia, and Trump's presence on the ballot could have a negative impact on Biden in November. Obama's signature achievement, the health care law known as the Affordable Care Act, rose in popularity in the months after he left office as Republicans repeatedly tried to repeal it.
Jim Messina, Obama's re-election campaign manager, said, “Gone are the days when you could get credibility even under Presidents Reagan and Clinton.'' “We're too polarized for that right now.”
At times there were signs of competition between the three. Mr. Obama characterized Mr. Biden and his administration as having “essentially finished the job” of his presidency. (Mr. Biden has occasionally adopted “get the job done” as a slogan in his own re-election campaign).
But White House aides say Biden frequently speaks with his two Democratic predecessors and consults them on politics and policy, down to the level of detail in setting up campaign offices in key battleground states. It is said that there is. Thursday's joint event between the two parties aims to demonstrate the unity of the party's standard-bearers. The president and two former presidents will be interviewed by Stephen Colbert in front of an audience of approximately 5,000 people at Radio City Music Hall. The event, which aides have proactively billed as “the most successful political fundraiser in American history,” is expected to raise more than $25 million.
Still, Biden remains unique in that he remains the only U.S. president with a low rating. As the economy recovers from the pandemic-induced slump, Mr. Biden has received poor ratings for his handling of the issue, lagging behind Mr. Obama, who took office during a historic recession. Even on Mr. Biden's best days, his approval ratings never matched the highs of either Mr. Clinton or Mr. Obama during their first terms. And large parts of his own party remain concerned about whether he is fit to serve another term.
Jennifer Palmieri, who worked in the Clinton and Obama White Houses, said Biden is not the only world leader in a democracy whose voters remain anxious after the pandemic.
“Dads own too many things right now,” Palmieri said, referring to Biden as a father figure to the nation. “My father is being blamed for a lot of things. He is thought to be responsible for creating a lot of anxiety in people's minds, and we are solving it based on the president's approval rating. think.”
Ranking the accomplishments of these three presidents is scientifically inaccurate. They each experienced different economic conditions, foreign policy crises, and cultural changes at different times. Beverly Gage, a professor of history and American studies at Yale University, said what is particularly unique about Biden is the radical approach he has taken to government.
Mr. Clinton ran as a centrist. He believed there was a path to helping the party return to power after the Reagan era. It was to rebrand the Democratic Party as fiscally responsible and prepared to take a more limited approach to government. His first term accomplishments include passing the Crime Bill, the Violence Against Women Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and creating the Early Head Start program.
Once in office, Mr. Obama passed important legislation such as the health care law and financial regulation, but he never completely abandoned Mr. Clinton's centrist approach.
But Mr. Gage argued that Mr. Biden entered the administration with a more “broadly embracing” attitude toward government, an administration modeled after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose portrait hangs prominently in the Oval Office. He added that he is aiming to establish a tree. .
“He aimed to be a president who was very different from Clinton and even from Obama in terms of policy,” said Gage, who met with Biden at the White House in early January. “I think Biden is a president who looks back at eras like the New Deal and sees it not as something to reject or run away from, but as a true model of what he was trying to do.” Masu.”
White House officials noted that much of Biden's staff, including his chief of staff Jeff Zients and many senior aides and the president, worked in the Obama administration, building on the work done by the previous administration. He said he is doing so. Himself.
Officials say gun control is one example.
In 1994, Mr. Clinton signed the assault weapons ban, which was passed by Mr. Biden in the Senate. Biden led the Obama administration's public efforts after the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. As vice president, Mr. Biden helped win new support for the regulations, even though Mr. Obama did not receive enough votes to pass them in the Senate. And as president, Biden broke a decades-long impasse by signing a bipartisan gun bill in 2022.
Luisa Terrell, Mr. Biden's former legislative affairs director, said the Obama administration's efforts provided the policy scaffolding for much of what Mr. Biden pursued as president.
“We felt we were building on the experience and foundation that was laid during the Obama and Clinton administrations,” said Terrell, who also served as special assistant for legislative affairs in the Obama administration.
Donna Brazile, who was active in the 1996 Clinton campaign and later served as chair of the Democratic National Committee, said that Mr. Biden “achieved the Triple Crown” in his first term, and that he would like to convey to the nation the magnitude of his accomplishments. He said he was having a hard time.
Like other Democratic leaders, she predicted Biden's political standing would rise in the fall as voters started paying more attention to the campaign after the summer's conventions.
“You can't explain a recipe when people aren't ready to eat it,” she said. “You also can’t put a message out there that you think will resonate before people understand why it makes sense.”
Ruth Igielnik Contributed to the report.
