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| | | | | |  | | By Sam Stein, Alex Thompson and Tina Sfondeles | Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina There are a million different ways to spin the results of Tuesday’s elections, all seemingly being laid out in reverse chronological order on Twitter. But one particularly consistent theme among Democrats is this: The party, President JOE BIDEN included, has lost some of the plot that worked back in 2020. “The White House’s political operation has clearly lost its way,” said one Biden World confidante. “The President won because Democrats were finally making a strong, disciplined, affirmative case to voters while neutralizing Republicans’ attempts to start a culture war. We’re miles away from that now.” Sent this comment, a White House official responded that in “2020 and 2019, there was also no shortage of outside pundits who wanted to backseat drive.” The official noted that Biden “has travelled the country for months – including going to Scranton two weeks ago – fighting for the Build Back Better agenda.” Two years ago, Biden tried, in tangible ways, to steer the conversation away from then-President DONALD TRUMP . His candidacy was grounded in themes of competence and economic populism and not being “too online.” The mantra was Scranton v. Park Ave. The degree to which that ultimately worked is the object of debate. A myriad of different factors went into his election. Clearer is the fact that those themes aren't breaking through now. The closing argument of the most watched race this fall — Virginia’s gubernatorial contest — centered on framing Republican GLENN YOUNGKIN as Trump reincarnated and pledging to protect TONI MORRISON’s ‘Beloved.’ More than one party official wondered whether the smarter play would have been to attack Youngkin, a former CEO of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, as a soulless plutocrat like Democrats did in 2012 against MITT ROMNEY, who ran the private equity firm Bain Capital before jumping into politics . “Running against Trump when he’s not directly on the ballot is clearly not sufficient on its own, though it remains his Republican Party,” said BEN LABOLT, who served as press secretary to President BARACK OBAMA when he ran for reelection against Romney in 2012. “You also have to run against the candidates themselves. And in some ways, Youngkin was the older model of the country club Republican, the Mitt Romney Republican.” Biden’s defenders argue that he wasn’t responsible for the decision to make Youngkin out to be a creature of the subterranean MAGAverse, that the choice was made by TERRY MCAULIFFE’s campaign and that the data showed the necessity for it. Democrats needed their voters to turn out. Their voters revile Trump and fear Trumpism. But the results show the flip side of that approach. While Youngkin did well across the board relative to Trump’s 2020 campaign, he managed to squeeze even more massive margins in places assumed (by some) to be tapped out by Trump: rural, blue collar areas of the state. And he did so not just by harping on education issues, but by running ads that painted McAuliffe as being in the pocket of corporate interests. | More than one prominent Democrat expressed astonishment that the party fell even lower in these areas. But not everyone. A senior Hill Democratic aide argued that it has been years since the party effectively tried to win over this constituency. “The last Democrat to run an effective campaign to win over working class voters was the last few months of the Obama campaign,” the aide said, noting the now famous ad run against Romney that year — a super PAC spot that featured a paper plant worker who charged Romney (via Bain) of forcing him to build his “own coffin” (figuratively speaking). The question now facing Biden and Democrats is what, if anything, they can do about it. But Biden has tried to hit the themes that animated his 2020 run. As the White House official pointed out, the president went back to his birthplace of Scranton, Penn. recently to emphasize the need to pass his domestic agenda. And White House officials believe that components of that agenda, if passed, will help them reclaim the mantle of economic populism. Passing the Medicare prescription drug reforms, for example, would provide evidence to voters that they’re serious about getting healthcare costs under control and taking on corporate interests. Still, tradeoffs to pass the bill could complicate that too, most notably in the easing of state and local tax deduction caps that would largely benefit the wealthy and upper class. There is hope, in other parts of the party, that the administration thinks more outside the box, leaning into the type of anti-monopoly policies that could open up political opportunities in agriculture-heavy states. But at least one Democratic strategist suggests the answer may lie in a much simpler approach. “Showing up helps. Showing interest, showing respect, coming to listen and not just to deliver stone tablets telling people what is best for them, that helps,” said DAVID AXELROD, Obama’s longtime adviser. Axelrod, however, wasn’t sanguine about the task. In particular, he noted that partisan echo chambers made it exceedingly hard for Democrats to reach these voters. We asked him if Obama would have won Ohio in 2012 had he been operating in the modern media climate. “Maybe not,” he conceded, “maybe not.” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you EDWIN R. THOMAS III, assistant executive clerk? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here . Or you can text/Signal Alex at 8183240098. | | | | BECOME A GLOBAL INSIDER: The world is more connected than ever. It has never been more essential to identify, unpack and analyze important news, trends and decisions shaping our future — and we’ve got you covered! Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Global Insider author Ryan Heath navigates the global news maze and connects you to power players and events changing our world. Don’t miss out on this influential global community. Subscribe now. | | | | | | | | Courtesy of the White House Historical Association In honor of the Braves’ World Series-clinching victory last night — which president attended the most World Series games of any sitting president? (Answer at the bottom.) | | | FOREIGN AFFAIRS — We combed through the foreign press coverage of Biden’s European trip to see if America is indeed, “back,” at least in the view of our friends on the other side of the Atlantic. Some highlights: An Oct. 30 headline in the French newspaper Le Monde (thank you Google translate): “Between Biden and Macron, a difficult reconciliation after the Aukus agreement.” The sub-headline: “Without apologizing, Joe Biden recognized ‘a lack of elegance’ towards Paris.” It features a picture of Biden, eyebrows raised, grabbing French President EMMANUEL MACRON’s hand during a meeting on Oct. 29. The BBC compiled several Scottish newspaper headlines, including a Nov. 2 Edinburgh Evening News front page: “Summit doesn’t add up: Biden takes huge motorcade down M8 for climate showdown.” Daily Star of Scotland had a similar theme: “Hot Air Force One: Flying hypocrisy of world leaders.” But our favorite was tweeted out by first lady JILL BIDEN’s spokesman MICHAEL LaROSA. The first lady is pictured holding up ravioli dough in the kitchen of a middle school in the city of Caserta on the front page of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The headline: “Jill Biden, first Italian-American first lady: ‘My grandmother used to hang spaghetti in the kitchen’” DEFUND DEFEATED: In the battle of Biden pollster v. Biden pollster, JOHN ANZALONE is the winner. In August, we highlighted the fact that two of the president’s top 2020 advisers, Anzalone and CELINDA LAKE, were working on opposite sides of a ballot amendment to try to replace Minneapolis’ police department with a “department of public safety” — an effort that emerged after the murder of GEORGE FLOYD last year. Lake was working for Yes 4 Minneapolis, the group hoping to create a new public safety department that would include police “if necessary.” Anzalone’s firm opposed what he called the “defund referendum.” Voters on Tuesday rejected the amendment – with 56 percent voting no. CLARIFICATION : Yesterday, we referred to Diwali as the “Indian festival of lights.” But not everyone in India celebrates Diwali. A better way to describe it would have been: a festival of lights celebrated by many religious groups in India. Thanks to the 19th News' SHEFALI LUTHRA for reaching out. | | | DEEP BREATHS — Biden on Wednesday said Democrats should have passed his Build Back Better agenda before the party’s Election Day defeat in Virginia, though he added that he’s not sure it would have changed the results. In his first remarks since Republican Glenn Youngkin was declared the governor-elect of Virginia, MYAH WARD writes that the president pointed to external factors weighing down voters like the lingering Covid-19 pandemic and economic uncertainty. “People need a little breathing room. They’re overwhelmed. And what happened was I think we have to just produce results for them to change their standard of living and give them a little more breathing room,” Biden said at the White House. PULLING THE PLUG: The Federal Reserve said today that it will begin to slow its massive bond purchases later this month, the first step in removing its extraordinary pandemic-era support for the economy, VICTORIA GUIDA reports. “The long-awaited move signals both optimism about the pace of job growth and wariness about price surges that have pushed inflation up to its highest level in decades,” Guida writes. | | | JAMAICA MAN — Biden today announced the nomination of NICK PERRY, a New York assemblyman, to serve as ambassador to Jamaica. Perry, who has been in the state legislature since 1992, received some interesting media attention earlier this year when a bill he sponsored fed a conspiracy theory that made its way to the Fox News website. Perry’s bill, which was first introduced in 2015 to deal with the Ebola virus, would have given the executive branch the authority to detain infected individuals and their contacts during a pandemic in a medical facility or other facility, BILL MAHONEY wrote back in January. That measure, which went nowhere, somehow became part of a conspiracy theory that alleged former New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO would be opening up detention camps. Cuomo’s office then said they weren’t aware of the bill and that “everyone’s crazy uncle needs to close Parler and take a walk or something.” | | | RAHM-GO — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee today approved Biden’s nomination of former Chicago Mayor RAHM EMANUEL as U.S. ambassador to Japan, despite Sens. JEFF MERKLEY (D-Ore.) and EDWARD MARKEY (D-Mass.) opposing the nomination. The nomination now advances to the full Senate where Emanuel will likely need Republican support. | | | Commerce Secretary Raimondo says trade deals, Biden agenda will reduce inflation (McClatchy’s Alex Roarty) Biden administration blacklists NSO group over Pegasys spyware (Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, Ellen Nakashima and Craig Timberg) | | | Back in Washington, D.C., where he and Vice President KAMALA HARRIS received his presidential daily brief this afternoon. He later spoke about the new CDC approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. | | | No public events scheduled. | | | Federal Trade Commission Chair LINA KHAN may have missed her calling. As a reporter for her high school newspaper in Mamaroneck, New York, a 15-year old Khan broke a story that ended up getting followed by the New York Times. The story was about a Starbucks in her New York suburb that was not allowing students to sit down, according to a 2018 NYT profile on Khan. Khan pinged the district manager about the issue twice, but didn’t hear back. Like any good reporter, Khan kept digging. She tracked down some of the local Starbucks employees, who explained that “students who sat at tables often did not buy anything, and the store management tried a variety of strategies, including not allowing students to stand or sit in large groups or permitting only those students who bought something to sit.” The local fight got so intense that Times wrote about it, with the headline “A Tempest In a Coffee Shop.” Get it? | | | | KNOW WHAT THE INSIDERS KNOW, READ PLAYBOOK: POLITICO Playbook analyzes the big stories and trends, bringing you the latest from Washington and across the political landscape. Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza and Tara Palmeri deliver the scoops you need to know — and the insider nuggets that you want to know — about the biggest political power players. Subscribe to Playbook, the unofficial guide to official Washington. | | | | | | | | Former President CALVIN COOLIDGE was a big fan of baseball and attended four World Series games. A CALL OUT: Do you have a harder trivia question about the presidency? Send us your best one and we may use it: westwingtips@politico.com. We want your trivia, but we also want your feedback. What should we be covering in this newsletter that we’re not? What are we getting wrong? Please let us know. Edited by Emily Cadei | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
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