Biden Is on a Roll That Any President Would Relish. Is It a Turning Point?

President Joe Biden is still one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history, despite his political victories. (Yuri Gripas/The New York Times)
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden arrived at Air Force One on Monday with a jaunty step, a playful manner and a huge grin. “Feeling great,” he declared. He meant physically, having finally ended his lengthy bout with COVID-19, but he could have been talking about his presidency writ large.

Biden has emerged from medical isolation to a new political world. Suddenly, the administration that could not get anything right, that could not catch a break, was on a roll that any president would relish: major legislation cruising to passage, at least some economic indicators heading in the right direction and the world’s most wanted terrorist killed after a two-decade manhunt.

Those early aspirations to being another Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson, the ones that felt like so much hubris in the past few months, are being heard again in the halls of the West Wing and the Capitol. White House aides argue that the string of congressional victories — capped by the package of climate, health and tax provisions that finally cleared the Senate over the weekend — compares favorably to the two-year legislative record of most any other modern president, even perhaps FDR and LBJ.

Whether the victories of recent weeks will prove to be a decisive turning point for Biden’s presidency or merely a transitory moment in an otherwise bleak administration, of course, remains to be seen. Biden is still one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history at this point in his term, according to polls, and even some House Democrats quietly worry that none of the achievements will save them from an electoral rout in November.

While the domestic package that advanced over the weekend is broadly popular in surveys — and many of its individual components overwhelmingly so — Republicans hope to pull out particular elements and use them as wedge issues against Democrats, characterizing the measure as a tax increase that will empower the IRS to go after middle-class Americans without fighting inflation. Democrats will retaliate by accusing Republicans of voting against drug relief for seniors on behalf of industry patrons.