House Republicans have won the messaging war in the debt-ceiling debate.
Just look at the Fox News poll showing that more voters would blame President Biden (47 percent) than congressional Republicans (44 percent) for default. (When Fox asked this same question in 2011, 32 percent said they would blame Obama, versus 47 percent who said they’d blame the GOP.)
The Biden White House strategy has been to insist that Republicans are dangerous extremists for wanting work requirements for federal benefits and spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. The problem for the Biden team and Congressional Democrats is that a solid majority of the public, and even nearly half of Democrats, agree with the positions Republicans are taking.
Democrats should realize that a president who is losing a messaging war in a debt ceiling fight is a president who is at considerable risk of losing a messaging war during his reelection campaign. Or perhaps quite a few Democrats already recognize that, as only 60 percent of Democrats prefer Biden as the party’s nominee in 2024.
Meanwhile, Charlie Sykes wonders why Joe Biden isn’t using the traditional presidential “bully pulpit” more. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the president is 80 years old, mumbles when he isn’t reading off a teleprompter, prefers public events to be scheduled between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays, and spends almost every weekend in Delaware.