Democrats KNOW they have problems…
Everyone is thinking they WILL lose the House and maybe the Senate….
They ARE desperate…
But the problem IS internal….
Democrats HAVE to STOP worrying about making Progressives happy , take care of the economy and President Biden start acting/looking like a President….
Things are NOT good if the party and Biden have issues with the minority voters…
Oh, and Obama is stopping by the White House to visit Biden….
Democrats are desperately trying to understand what’s roiling the electorate heading into a brutal midterm environment.
HIT Strategies has been conducting weekly focus groups to find out in real time how Americans are processing events in 2022. On Monday night we watched discussions with two different subgroups of partisan Democrats assembled by the firm: “Black Base, Always vote for Dems, Ages 25+” and “Youth Base; Always vote for Dems, Ages 25 – 39.”
There were significant differences within and between the two groups of nine voters. But there were some broad takeaways:
— 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. This was especially true on two big issues:
The economy: A cottage industry of White House officials and left-wing media critics who talk to each other on Twitter has convinced themselves that the media is responsible for the public’s overwhelming focus on the bad news of inflation rather than the good news of low unemployment and rising wages. The focus groups exploded that bit of Democratic self-deception.
When the voters were asked to describe how they feel about how things are going, they responded with words like “exhausted,” “uptight,” “unsure,” “concerned” and “anxious.”….
When former President Obama appears at the White House on Tuesday, Democrats say it will provide a much-needed boost to President Biden, who has been lagging in the polls.
Obama remains extremely popular with the Democratic base, and his return to the White House comes as Biden has struggled to boost his poll numbers in the face of a flurry of challenges, most notably soaring inflation.
“I think this comes at the right moment,” said one Democratic strategist. “We need a jolt of energy right now, and no one brings that more than Obama.”….
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