April 1, 2022: Biden’s sophomore slump

For President Joe Biden, this was one of those weeks that demonstrated the limits of the powers of the presidency. 

Political scientists often like to rib pundits and the public for having a so-called “Green Lantern” view of the presidency, a theory defined by Dartmouth’s Brendan Nyhan as “the belief that the president can achieve any political or policy objective if only he tries hard enough or uses the right tactics."

In reality, presidents operate under enormous constraints that often make them seem feckless in the face of intractable problems. 

The news at the end of this week makes it clear that Biden has entered the “long slog” period of his first term. The bold ambitions of year one have been downsized. And even with more modest goals, unifying Democrats in Congress has become tougher — and winning over Republicans harder — than ever. Many problems, like inflation, don’t have readily available solutions. And even when Biden is able to act, like on immigration, his choices are politically perilous.

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Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook.
Jenny Ament is the Executive Producer of POLITICO Audio.