The increasingly urgent focus on inflation marks yet another attempt by Biden and his team to steady their political standing after a precipitous autumn decline and ahead of next year’s midterms. But it also is part of the same problem they’ve been dealing with since taking office: How to convey that progress is being made without appearing so upbeat that Americans tune it out as detached happy talk or, worse, insulting spin.
“If you go too far on the positive side, you run a serious risk of looking out of touch,” said Mark Mellman, the Democratic strategist and pollster. “We’ve seen presidents look out of touch when they trumpet a recovery that people aren’t feeling yet. So it’s really a delicate balance.”
“They need to emphasize the good news,” he added, “and empathize with the trouble that people are still feeling.”
There is ample precedent for a president trying — and failing — to message his way through a recovery that has yet to be felt by voters. In 1993 and again in 2009, Americans perceived that the economy was recovering more slowly, and more unevenly, than expected, even though it was, indeed, recovering. The ensuing midterms brought painful lessons for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama alike.
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