Biden banking on a PR ‘reset’ as Democrats showcase voting rights failure

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Howard Kurtz: Biden has been on a ‘spectacular losing streak’ since Afghanistan

The ‘MediaBuzz’ host reacts to President Biden’s week of administrative failures.

Senate Democrats launched an effort yesterday to get an up-or-down verdict on voting rights legislation, knowing full well they are going to lose.

The question is, why?

It seems to me to be a public display of weakness: Yes, we really want to change the voting laws, and yes, we control both houses of Congress, but we don’t have the votes. And it shifts the public spotlight to boring procedural arguments about the filibuster and other arcane Senate rules.

The nominal reason is to get all Senate Republicans on record as opposing the two voting bills, so that the Democrats can exploit the issue in this year’s midterms. But that reflects a classic Beltway mentality.

Without minimizing the importance of voting rights, especially to minorities and especially as Republican governors are tightening restrictions, I don’t think many Americans regard this as the most burning issue facing the country. For all the democracy-in-danger rhetoric, I’d say inflation, supply shortages, Covid and scattered school shutdowns seem more of a clear and present danger.

President Biden walks to the Oval Office of the White House after stepping off Marine One, Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

President Biden pivoted to the issue because he couldn’t pass his $2-trillion spending bill, but both have the same roadblock: Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. If Biden had two more Democratic senators, he could achieve these goals, but he doesn’t, and now appears to have badly misjudged the appetite for sweeping liberal legislation. He undoubtedly should have bit off popular chunks of Build Back Better that would have kept the price tag down.

The Washington Post has almost a political obituary for the party’s progressive wing:

"Long gone are the days when Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) sparred across Iowa and New Hampshire over whose policy platform was most transformative, motivated by a sense that they had a chance to usher in a new era of American politics." But now the left is "markedly deflated."

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Warren appeared agitated as she complained about "procedure" yesterday on "CBS This Morning," saying it gives Mitch McConnell a veto. But of course Democrats used the filibuster hundreds of times in the Trump years.

Biden has moved left with his party, if not as far as the AOC faction, but the problem is deeper than that. He too often sounds like the 101st senator, mired in the Washington swamp. Combine that with his media aversion–he holds his first presser in nearly three months today–and social media dullness and you have a diminished bully pulpit. 

Post columnist David Von Drehle says: "Biden is too small for the office. Elected by the largest turnout in U.S. history and by voters who thought he would restore mature, measured leadership to the White House, he has instead dwindled in the job. Presidents and their running mates are the only people elected by the entire country. That gives them the duty, and the opportunity, to rise above the Washington fray — yet Biden is being whipsawed by it."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, walks to the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. Photographer: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The new spin coming out of the White House is that the president will make a strategic shift. And like so many struggling politicians, he is blaming his woes on bad PR–which is just one slice of the problem.

As NBC reports: "Biden’s reset plan, senior administration officials said, is to make his conversations with Congress less of a public priority and to emphasize spending more time communicating directly with Americans. The officials said that the White House will continue negotiations with Congress over Biden’s legislative priorities but that it would stop releasing details of the talks to the public."

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As if they won’t dribble out?

Biden wants to "talk to more people directly," one official is quoted as saying, but advisers aren’t sure the effort will work.

Let’s not forget that the president has faltered in a highly sympathetic media environment, the polar opposite of what Donald Trump faced. That’s why the stories are being framed as What Biden Needs to Do to Fix His Problems as opposed to Biden Is Blowing It Big Time.

He needs better communications, sure, but ultimately he needs better results. After a disappointing first year, Joe Biden may be bumping up against his limitations at a time when he urgently needs to raise his game.