Democrats ARE waiting and hoping for this….
They need it to work…..
Cause it hasn’t been….
And the direction will be back to the middle and not knocking heads with Manchin ans Sinema….
After taking office promising sweeping legislation and transformed government, Joe Biden is poised to fight the midterms the same way his two immediate Democratic predecessors did: trumpeting moderation and a center-left agenda.
Underscored by his budget last week, Biden’s emerging election-year blueprint is to emphasize police and defense spending, accentuate federal deficit reduction and propose higher taxes on the ultra-rich. It’s the early centerpiece of a platform that Biden’s defenders note he’s deployed consistently over his long career. But gone is his early-presidency emphasis on bold deficit spending and revamping the social safety net to achieve long-sought Democratic priorities. In its place is an increased focus on domestic and international security and stability.
Biden’s approach, which has been evident in recent speeches and described in further detail by advisers and close allies, is the clearest sign yet that the White House is trying to reestablish his broader competency ratings, which have taken sustained hits going back to the fall. And it follows months of calls from within the party for the White House to more aggressively chart a path for what promises to be a bruising fall election cycle.
House Democrats’ own internal polling shows the party is vulnerable to Republican attacks on crime and police funding as well as high inflation. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, meanwhile, has compelled the White House toreinforce their desire to achieve global security through strong national defense.
But the administration is also attempting to play the hand it has dealt itself. While the White House continues to pursue scaled back climate and social spending initiatives with just Democratic votes, one of Biden’s biggest policy victories — a sweeping infrastructure bill — was passed with Republican help. Another legislative package to boost competitiveness through innovation also is bipartisan.
“Political reality just didn’t support the expansive view of progressive possibilities,” said Bill Galston, the former Clinton administration official now at the Brookings Institution. “If you put an ideological template on it, you have to say the correction is to the center.”….