Biden’s extraordinary summer

Media narratives are trajectory driven.

The things get better or worse.

People go up and down.

Perhaps there is a feeling of a rookie threatening the establishment.

Perhaps there is a spectacular fall from grace.

Maybe there will be a return.

Regardless of the story, what matters is the direction of the movement.

Joe Biden got involved in one of those narratives:

that things were going wrong and people were losing faith.

Then, of course, the polls backed up that narrative, which it provided a patina test.

But the truth is, news and polls are symbionts.

The narratives help shape what people believe, which is then captured by the polls, and those poll results are then fed back into the news narratives as a separate, objective and independent fact.

“Joe Biden Can’t Take A Break” was an orderly narrative.

Each disappointing new data point fits neatly into it.

But reality is not governed by the rules of the media.

It is often a lot more nuanced.

As legendary football manager Lou Holtz once said:

“You are never as good as others say when you win, and you are never as bad as they say when you lose.”

Biden has had some bad months, sure, but you can’t get around the fact that the last month was stellar for administration.

On the economic front, since Wednesday, gasoline prices have fallen for 50 consecutive days, 86 cents down from an average record of $ 5.02 on June 14, according to CNN.

The job market also showed a incredible resilience.

Friday’s job report alone far exceeded expectations.

There are challenges.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, inflation increased by “9.1% in the 12 months ending June, the largest increase in 12 months since the period ending November 1981”.

The fact remains that Biden had a good month; just emphasize the complexity of any news.

On the legislative front, Biden signed federal law in June gun safety largest in nearly 30 years.

Two weeks ago, your large grocery bill, Rebuild betterthat everyone thought was dead, was resurrected in the reduced form of the law on reducing inflation.

Now, all the Democrats in the Senate have backed the bill and it was passed in that body.

These developments do not erase legislative disappointments such as the failure of the protection of voters or the account of police reformbut still they are victories.

There are foreign policy victories, such as the assassination of the Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahriin Afghanistan and the overwhelming Senate vote in favor of expand NATO to include Finland and Sweden, a direct reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

And the Russians have suggested they are willing to discuss a prisoner swap to free Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, who are still in Russian custody.

Here too there are challenges.

For example, tensions with China are high, particularly after a visit to Taiwan by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

Then there is the super problem that the Supreme Court cancel the right to abortion.

This was a huge disappointment for the Liberals and many accused the White House of not reacting strongly enough.

But it appears the issue has sparked some disinterested or dispassionate voters and could help Democrats stop a massive wave of Republican victories in the medium term.

We don’t need to look further Kansasa state that voted heavily for Trump in 2020 but voted even harder last week to keep the right to abortion in the state constitution.

Biden’s streak may not be enough yet change the narrative on it from a spiral to a rebound, but a correct reading of recent events requires some adjustments.

The White House must also change its message from defensive to offensive.

I never believed the argument that Biden’s polls were negative because he was simply not doing enough to promote his successes.

There were some times when the disappointments really seemed to outweigh their results.

But this is not the case now, and the administration must seize this moment and not be ashamed to cry out for its victories.

This is an area in which Donald Trump it has been successful:

the boast

When he campaigned in 2016, he said that if elected, people might even “get tired of victoriesr “.

As he said, people said:

“Please, please, it’s too much to win. We can’t take it anymore. Mr. President, it is too much ”.

To which he said he would reply: “No, it is not. We have to keep winning. We have to win more “.

He would spend his tenure in office bragging that everything that happened during his tenure was the biggest and the best.

We now know that the Trump presidency has been a disaster which almost destroyed the country, but if a failure like Trump can boast of everything he did, even when there was no evidence, surely Biden can find a way to do some bragging on his own, in particular during one of the most successful periods of his presidency.

Biden, you did it.

Brag about it.

c.2022 The New York Times Company