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Hey, good morning, Playbookers and Rookman Oval. It's Monday.

It's just over six months until the midterm elections.

So, how's Joe Biden looking?

It's your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.

Midterm elections are generally a referendum on the president's performance, and on that measure,

President Joe Biden is in rough shape.

Let's look at how it happened, and how he hopes to prevent a wipeout.

As early as April 2021, John Anzolone, Biden's top pollster, saw the writing on the wall.

In a series of memos over the ensuing months, the New York Times reports, he tried to warn

the president about the growing liabilities posed by immigration, inflation, and crime.

The warning, quote, immigration is a growing vulnerability for the president.

Voters do not feel he has a plan to address the situation on the border, and it is starting

to take a toll.

Within a month, there was another stark warning.

Quote, nearly 9 and 10 registered voters are also concerned about increasing inflation.

And yet, despite the early warnings, quote, Mr. Biden and his top advisors have struggled to prevent

either issue from becoming a major political liability.

His economic team said inflation was temporary.

Turmoil among his immigration aides delayed any serious action to address the border.

For all the ambition of Mr. Biden's domestic agenda, his pollster also warned him that most

voters did not have a clear sense of his economic proposals.

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