Is Biden Back?

President Biden got stuff done at the G20 summit in Rome.  He secured a trade deal with the European Union regarding steel and saved Americans jobs threatened by retaliation against Trump's now-canceled tariffs.  He and other world leaders also agreed to stop subsiding coal use internationally to combat climate change. 

And none of it seems to matter.

Biden's approval ratings have sunk to just above 40 percent, and he's lower in the Gallup poll at this point in his Presidency than any other modern President except Trump.  His reconciliation bill is still stalled in Congress - even after he pleaded with Democrats not to embarrass him be failing to pass it on the cusp of his trip to Europe.  And then there's that pesky gubernatorial election in Virginia between Democrat Terry McAuliffe   and Republican Glenn Youngkin.

Youngkin is on fire as his campaign focuses on state and local issues with national implications, such as education, even as he sidesteps associations with Trump without offended in Trump voters.  Is this going to be a victory that pivots momentum back to the Republicans in the 2022 midterms? Going into the midterm campaign season, things look pretty bleak for Democrats overall due to the lack of distrust between the liberal and moderate wings.  To hope they can put aside their differences and concentrate on their commonalities may be wishful thinking, though I have one simple message for both progressives and moderates.  Win one for Biden dammit!  Tomorrow may be your last chance to get these infrastructure bills done!    

So is Biden back, given what he's managed to accomplish this past weekend and what he may be able to pull off once he gets home?  The general consensus is that the infrastructure package will pass, sooner or later, but preferably sooner.  (Unless Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema in the Senate have even more demands.)  He could be helped by declining COVID cases and a slightly improving economy.  And regardless of what happens in Virginia, Democratic victories in this year's other marquee elections - governor of New Jersey and mayor of New York City - are all but assured.  Phil Murphy and Eric Adams will likely win those elections, and two out of three not only ain't bad, it's much better than what happened in Bill Clinton's first year in the White House, when Republicans George Allen, Christine Todd Whitman, and Rudolph Giuliani won a clean sweep of the Virginia governorship, New Jersey governorship, and New York City mayoralty races - the latter two candidates defeating Democratic incumbents on the ballot.  But then, we should be prepared for surprises - Whitman won her election in an upset.      

So let's hope Biden has sunk as low as he can go.  For now, he's going to be in Glasgow for COP26 to see if the planet can finally solve climate change once and for all.