During CNN’s coverage of Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate, CNN Senior Political Commentator and former Obama Adviser David Axelrod said that the reason why people have such negative views of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy is because “food prices, gas prices are still high, and that’s how people judge the economy. That’s how they live the economy.” And stated that those who claim that the problem is just Biden not selling his achievements enough are wrong.
After listening to an interview with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Axelrod stated, “The last question Dana asked is the one that I think a lot of people ask, which is, if the statistics are so positive, why is the President not getting credit for it? I think one of the reasons is, none of the things he mentioned had to do with prices. And, even though inflation has gone down, food prices, gas prices are still high, and that’s how people judge the economy. That’s how they live the economy. They go to the store, they see prices on the cash register. They go to the gas station and they see prices at the pump. And so, it’s — I know this from my own experience, when we were in the Obama administration, we were making real progress on the economy. But if we claimed too much — even if it was backed up by statistics — and people did not feel it, they would turn off. And we had to develop strategies for kind of getting the information out in ways that people were willing to accept. So, I’m not sure that the Governor’s right that it’s just a matter of not claiming these achievements enough. I think it’s also about people’s lived experience.”
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