(CNN)President Joe Biden and his administration appear perilously close to an irreversible severing of public confidence in his capacity to deliver prosperity and financial security as stiff economic challenges balloon into huge political liabilities.
A CNN poll released Wednesday shows that the President’s repeated efforts to highlight undeniably strong aspects of the economy’s post-pandemic rebound and to offset blame for its bad spots aren’t working.
The main culprit is inflation, a corrosive force that the White House initially underestimated and has failed to tame. It’s been decades since Americans have experienced this demoralizing cycle of spiraling costs for basic goods and services. That shock is twinned with punishing gasoline prices that also hammer family budgets and spread pain across the population — in a way that a regular recession, which can destroy millions of jobs but not hurt everyone — may not.
The result is a looming political disaster for Democrats, with voters in a disgruntled mood ahead of midterm elections that were already historically tough for a first-term President.
The depth of voter disquiet about the economy also suggests that a potential backlash against the Supreme Court possibly overturning the nationwide right to abortion may not save Democrats in November.
The party seems stuck in a dangerous political position of insisting the economy is doing well while voters think it’s in the tank.