Hey, good morning, Playbookers. I'm Raguam Winovalin. It's Tuesday. It's Election Day, and we'll get you a look inside Biden world on the big day. It's your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.

Every ad has been cut, every speech has been delivered, every poll has been taken, and now we wait for the voters to decide.

Needless to say, the stakes are high.

Abortion rights are on the ballot, inflation.

As at a 40-year peak, rising interest rates are stoking recession fears, and election deniers

are on the cusp of taking office.

But no one has more writing on the outcome than Joe Biden.

Throughout all of the headwinds he's faced in the two years and one day,

since he clinched the presidency, he had House and Senate majorities and experienced congressional

leaders backing him up. Now that backstop is seriously at risk. A Republican House threatens

to roto-root his administration with subpoenas while turning routine spending bills into high-stakes

standoffs.

A juppy Senate could compound the misery, him stringing his ability to appoint judges,

ambassadors, and cabinet officials.

So, how is Biden world facing this moment of reckoning?

By essentially arguing that whatever happens, it could have been much worse. The overwhelming sense of confidence from the summer has given way to expectations management,

with Biden advisors telling Playbook they're feeling cautiously optimistic about the Senate

while preparing for the worst in the House.

For all of the Democratic fretting, about a lack of a cohesive midterm message,

they argued that the White House did its job.

They executed a policy agenda that gave candidates more than enough to campaign on,

giving them a fighting chance in what was destined to be an uphill battle.

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