![]() The most she could say about Biden’s State of the Union speech is that “it can’t hurt.” But it’s snowballed in recent months to a defining challenge of his presidency, alongside, now, the threat of geopolitical instability from Russia’s attack on its neighbor.Ĭonsumer prices over the past 12 months jumped 7.5%, the highest since 1982, as many pay raises were swallowed up and dreams of home ownership or even a used car became prohibitively expensive. But gas prices really are the barometer.”īiden suggested last summer that high inflation was a temporary inconvenience. “You know what could change how people feel? And pretty fast? What they pay at the pump. “He’s got a lot of stuff on his plate,” she said. With Biden so hemmed in by hardened politics, it’s difficult to imagine a single speech altering the public’s perception, said Julia Helm, 52, a Republican county auditor from the suburbs west of Des Moines. Most Americans are vaccinated against COVID-19, but debates over masks and mandates have torn apart communities and families. ![]() Now, finally, a sustained drop in infections appears to be underway. After two years of a pandemic that has killed more than 920,000 in the U.S., majorities put masks back on and avoided travel and crowds in January in the sweep of the omicron variant. In December’s AP-NORC poll, most said economic conditions are poor and inflation has hit them on food and gas. Only 29% of Americans think the nation is on the right track, according to the February poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. They say the national psyche is a “trailing indicator” and will improve with time.īiden, in his speech, will highlight the improvements from a year ago - particularly on COVID and the economy - but also acknowledge that the job is not yet done, in recognition of the fact that many Americans don’t believe it.Ī year into Biden’s presidency, polling indeed finds that he faces a critical and pessimistic public. White House officials acknowledge that the mood of the country is “sour,” but say they are also encouraged by data showing peoples lives are better off than a year ago. ![]() Though not at Mar-a-Lago’s ocean edge in Florida, where Donald Trump praised Putin’s “savvy,” “genius” move against the country that entangled the defeated American president in his first impeachment trial. Politics didn’t stop at the water’s edge but it paused. “We’re all together at this point,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, “and we need to be together about what should be done.” Yet in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s attack last week, a long-absent reflex kicked back in as members of Congress projected unity behind the president, at least for the moment, in the confrontation with Moscow. “We have to feel good about ourselves before we can move forward,” historian Doris Kearns Goodwin told Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show.” ![]()
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