Biden facing grim test in fall midterm elections

"I call it a job not yet finished. It will get better."

A year into his presidency, and Joe Biden by some measures may already be running out of time.

He has just a few months to rally an unhappy Democratic coalition and reverse sliding public approval ratings or risk watching Republicans snatch back control of Congress in fall midterm elections.

"The expectations have hurt Biden."

Dr. Larry Sabato is the director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. He said expectations that the pandemic would ebb and inflation abate ran up against reality, and voters may take that frustration to the ballot box.

"Other problems can be dealt with. Inflation will certainly come down in time, but how fast? For Biden and the Democrats it had better be quickly. Otherwise they'll pay the price in November."

Biden's legislative successes such as the American Rescue Plan to combat the pandemic and a rare bipartisan infrastructure program are being overshadowed by recent stinging failures...

A wide ranging social-spending bill called Build Back Better now seems out of reach, as does a highly-promised voting rights bill, both defeated by unanimous Republican opposition and even resistance by some in the president's own party.

"But one of the things I think is something that one thing I haven't been able to do so far is get my Republican friends to get in the game of making things better in this country."

Democrats narrowly control both chambers of Congress. If Republicans win a majority in either the House of Representatives or Senate, Biden's legislative agenda could be doomed.

At a news conference Wednesday Biden said he would press to get smaller parts of the promised legislation passed.

"Yes, I'm confident we can get pieces-- big chunks of the Build Back Better law signed into law."

"Biden has to get some piece or pieces of it [the Build Back Better bill] passed. It's clearly not going to pass as a whole."

Even if parts of the spending bill become reality, the promised voting-rights package seems doomed in Congress... and that failure could infuriate Democratic voters.

"There are going to be a lot of people that are very angry about the inability to get that passed."

Andrew Smith teaches political science at the University of New Hampshire. He says that outrage might actually help Democrats in November as parts of the base move to punish what they see as a Republican effort to restrict their voting rights.

"And actually I think that will help Biden increasing minority turnout, because he's got to have that. If black turnout drops three percent, five percent in many states, that means that Senate seats go, certainly House seats go."

"You'd have to acknowledge we made enormous progress."

Analysts tell Reuters Biden’s hopes may rest on whether he can meet voters’ expectations, or failing that, manage their expectations.