Abdul in The New Republic: Biden’s Slippage Is Still Mainly About the Pandemic. That’s Good—Mostly.

His falling poll numbers are due more to the delta variant than the Beltway mess. That means he'll climb as things get better. Unless they get worse again.

Hey Friends — Sending along something a little different this Friday morning.

I usually publish a Thursday piece, but I wanted to explain why you’re seeing one today instead. I’ve engaged to write a regular column The New Republic. I’ll be writing with them every 2-3 weeks, which I’ll be sharing with you all here. My first piece with them published this morning. So what follows is a preview of today’s piece in The New Republic, you can read the rest of the piece on their website.

Joe Biden is trudging through the worst approval ratings of his presidency. The president’s low approval comes after months of headline-making challenges: the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, a diplomatic row with France, Haitian refugees being horsewhipped by Customs and Border Patrol officers, lagging jobs numbers, supply chain delays, and fears over continuing month-on-month inflation. Meanwhile, after a prolonged public battle, Democrats seem finally to be muddling toward a compromise Build Back Better budget reconciliation package.

It’s tempting to see salvation for Biden and the Democrats in passing these marquee bills, legislation on which he’s staked his presidency and Democrats have staked their future (assuming they succeed). Passing everything from critical climate change legislation to paid family leave to universal pre-K would massively benefit the country, after all—and so would benefit any president. And yet this obscures the fundamental issue that has and will continue to define the Biden presidency: the state of the Covid-19 pandemic... Head on over to The New Republic to find the rest of the piece.