--- title: There's a Reason Joe Biden Is Ignoring Your Eye Rolls description: Biden’s midterm showing beat historical trends and he's scored major policy wins. So why do we keep underestimating him? canonical: https://time.com/6232616/underestimating-biden-democrats-midterms-2022/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-11-10T21:46:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T15:02:10.867Z article:section: Politics og:title: There's a Reason Joe Biden Is Ignoring Your Eye Rolls og:description: Biden’s midterm showing beat historical trends and he's scored major policy wins. So why do we keep underestimating him? og:url: https://time.com/6232616/underestimating-biden-democrats-midterms-2022/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8b73c868f66eca0/698a37c2929faddbc7bf9442/GettyImages-1244647294.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Biden Midterm Presser og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's a Reason Joe Biden Is Ignoring Your Eye Rolls twitter:description: Biden’s midterm showing beat historical trends and he's scored major policy wins. So why do we keep underestimating him? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb8b73c868f66eca0/698a37c2929faddbc7bf9442/GettyImages-1244647294.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There's a Reason Joe Biden Is Ignoring Your Eye Rolls > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. Senior correspondent Philip Elliott brings sharp context to the issues driving the capital, connecting the decisions made in Washington to the institutions, industries and people they affect. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9a4068e7-1c6a-4f58-9a52-694f7e5dca63&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Monday to Saturday (3x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Philip Elliott, Senior Correspondent | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership The policy influence ecosystem. A policy-focused audience spanning government, public affairs, advocacy, law, research, political media, and the institutions that make, interpret and respond to public policy. ### TIME D.C. Brief: key statements * D.C. Brief is edited by TIME journalists. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Nov 10, 2022 9:46 PM UTC  President Joe Biden speaks at a news conference on the midterm elections and other issues in the State Dining Room of the White House on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. President Joe Biden speaks at a news conference on the midterm elections and other issues in the State Dining Room of the White House on Wednesday, November 9, 2022. Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Nov 10, 2022 9:46 PM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ When Joe Biden thinks he’s in the right, there isn’t much room for self-doubt in his orbit. So when exit polls on Tuesday indicated [two-thirds](https://www.nbcnews.com/video/exit-poll-shows-biden-2024-run-unpopular-152971845874) of the country would [prefer](https://www.nbcnews.com/video/exit-poll-shows-biden-2024-run-unpopular-152971845874) he not run for a second term, the President wasn’t much in a listening mode. And, on Wednesday when a reporter asked him how those numbers might shade his thinking about his next few moves on a political chess board, Biden was clear he was his own man who operates well outside survey data: “It doesn’t” shape his thinking at all, he [told reporters](https://time.com/6232089/joe-biden-2024/) at the White House. End of discussion. Full stop. It’s easy for those of us in Washington to roll our eyes at this Bidenesque bravado. His hyperbole is the stuff of legend, his hype easily mocked. _Literally_ is a trigger for a muffled chuckle. His swagger suppresses all manner of self-doubt. And yet… let’s not forget: Biden’s midterm showing [beat](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/midterm-election-results-boost-biden-2024-hopes-strategists-say-2022-11-09/) historical trends. And while he was shunned in crucial races, and stayed away, many of those [Biden-hesitant](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/24/us/politics/tim-ryan-ohio-senate.html) figures ultimately prevailed on Tuesday. Moreover, Biden’s first term has delivered significant wins that lap his predecessors. All together, the President is [showing](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/03/us/politics/biden-raisin-bran-inflation.html) he can have [garbage](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/) polling while simultaneously posting a scoreboard that surpasses many of his post-World War II comrades’ benchmarks. Maybe—and it’s a big one—Biden can shelve his ego better than anyone else in Washington, and perhaps his understanding of politics is better than even his allies want to credit. Biden’s first two years in office have been nothing if not a contradiction. A [pandemic](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/19/biden-pandemic-over-covid-team-response-00057649), a Russian [invasion](https://www.npr.org/2022/09/21/1124095601/biden-ukraine-unga-speech) of Ukraine, a race of [inflation](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/10/business/biden-inflation-economy.html), and a migration [crisis](https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/20/politics/immigration-migrants-biden-border-policy) have all earned Biden undeniable spots in history’s index—urgent unfurling events that typically hobble a new President. Yet Biden keeps marching on, passing a massive infrastructure [agenda](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/16/us/politics/biden-climate-health-bill.html), cobbling together a bipartisan economic [package](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/us/politics/biden-signs-infrastructure-bill.html), shipping staggering pallets of cash and weapons to [Kyiv](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/08/after-arming-ukraine-biden-sets-sights-on-weapons-for-eastern-europe-00055555), mobilizing vaccinations and boosters so efficiently as to quiet most critics. The symbolic moves of patching up the United States’ image abroad after four years of his predecessor’s aggressive isolationist antagonism has been greeted fulsomely, and the traditional NATO embrace has calmed skittish allies about the West’s footing. Twitter and cable news keep a lot of D.C. chasing the hourly imbroglio of error and gaffe. The fact that Biden [fell](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/18/biden-bike-fall/) off a bike in Delaware looped for hours, but his technical changes to environmental policy will last for years. He has stumbled on a few words here and tripped on some steps there; he also [designated](https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-10-12/biden-in-colorado-designates-first-new-national-monument#:~:text=By%20Associated%20Press-,Oct.,2022%2C%20at%205%3A59%20p.m.&text=KIM%2C%20Associated%20Press-,LEADVILLE%2C%20Colo.,tell%20the%20story%20of%20America.) a new national park that is now untouchable for generations. His misstatements of fact don’t undermine that he [erased](https://time.com/nextadvisor/in-the-news/why-borrowers-should-apply-by-nov-15-for-student-loan-forgiveness/) a massive tranche of student-loan debt. Washington—and those who control its power levers—reward the shiny objects, the headlines that get retweets and hate-forwards. Biden is of an era that came well before anyone could define [doom-scrolling](https://time.com/5905324/reddit-collapse/). His first race for Senate in 1972 predated the Watergate hearings, his first campaign for the White House predated commercially available cell phones. Biden is an old-school pol’ in the most classic of terms, and he makes no apologies for it. After all, having a winning record doesn’t really require it. So when Biden dismisses his skeptics with a machismo [“watch me”](https://time.com/6232089/joe-biden-2024/)—as he did Wednesday when asked what he would say to those who don’t think he should run again—it is tempting to treat it as an old man’s delusions. But that would be a mistake; Biden may get Washington better than most, and, at least to his mind, he still has a toehold in U.S. politics that may prove far more durable than anything the D.C. set has found for itself. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6232616/underestimating-biden-democrats-midterms-2022/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6232616/underestimating-biden-democrats-midterms-2022/"},"headline":"There's a Reason Joe Biden Is Ignoring Your Eye Rolls","datePublished":"2022-11-10T21:46:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T15:02:10.867Z","description":"Biden’s midterm showing beat historical trends and he's scored major policy wins. So why do we keep underestimating him?","url":"https://time.com/6232616/underestimating-biden-democrats-midterms-2022/","keywords":["The D.C. 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