| Tonight, President Biden will address Congress and the nation during a perilous time for him (at least politically) and for the world. He plans to assert that better days are ahead, report The Post's Annie Linskey and Tyler Pager, while trying to be realistic and empathetic about all the challenges Americans (and the world) are facing under his watch. Since State of the Union addresses tend to be when presidents tout their accomplishments, here's a look at where we think Biden has made good on his promises — and where he's failed to deliver on them.  Security fences put up ahead of Biden's State of the Union address tonight. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post) | His successes Shortly after getting in the White House, Biden and Democrats decided to go it alone on another coronavirus relief package. They used a process that lets them dodge a Republican filibuster to send stimulus checks to many Americans, extend federal unemployment benefits and expand a child tax credit that data suggests helped lifted millions of children out of poverty. (But Democrats failed to extend the child tax credit after 2021, and child poverty spiked by 41 percent by some estimates.) Later in the fall, Biden worked with Republicans to pass a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. He'll probably talk tonight about how many hundreds of bridges or thousands of roads will be fixed because of the money. A majority of Americans are vaccinated from the coronavirus. About half of Americans say the pandemic is "somewhat" under control, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. He just nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, a consensus liberal pick. If she gets confirmed by the Senate (I'd be surprised if she didn't), Biden will leave a legacy of elevating Black women to some of the nation's most powerful jobs.  Biden, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson and Vice President Harris on Friday. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) | As far as the economy, unemployment is down and wages are up. But … Biden's failures Much of his agenda when he took office is on the cutting-room floor, with little to no hope of getting picked up again. He didn't expand the government safety net. He and other Democrats in Congress wanted to spend as much as $3 trillion creating everything from universal prekindergarten to paid family leave to expanded Medicaid. But that failed when he failed to win over Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). He didn't set federal standards for voting rights to combat voting restrictions in red states. Republicans would never have supported this (the status quo suits them just fine), but he failed to persuade Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to get rid of the filibuster for voting rights issues. Bipartisan negotiations on a police reform bill failed. Inflation is at a 40-year high. That's partly a function of a globalized economy struggling to regain its footing after the pandemic turned everything upside down. But inflation may have also been a side effect of government spending through the various coronavirus relief packages passed under Biden and Donald Trump, even as they helped the economy grow quickly. Jury's out Biden is letting European leaders take the public lead, but he's furiously working with U.S. allies to impose serious, highly coordinated sanctions on Russia that have impressed sanctions experts The Post talks to. Congress is gearing up to send Ukraine aid and punish Russia with its own sanctions, my colleague Tony Romm reports. But it's still too early in the conflict to give Biden a grade on his approach. Republicans I talk to say they wish Biden would have done more sooner to punish Russia for massing troops on Ukraine's border. What the polls say Biden's approval rating hit a new low this month, according to a Post-ABC poll. Just 37 percent say they approve of the job he is doing, and 55 percent say they disapprove. More people disapprove than approve of his handling of the two biggest issues in America right now: the economy and the pandemic. More people say they associate with Republicans now than when Biden took office. Oh, and a clear majority of Americans say they don't think Biden is a strong leader. What he's expected to say He can't be sunny, given all of the above, Democratic strategists have noted. But he is expected to talk about how things are at least better (specifically in terms of the pandemic) than they were before he took office. And expect him to talk a lot about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the existential threat it poses to democracy. But as far as offering solutions, Biden's stuck. He's probably pushed Congress as far as he can. It would be remarkable if Manchin and Sinema reversed themselves from their opposition to helping Biden pass his agenda. And this time next year, it's possible — maybe even probable — that he's working with a Republican Congress, which likely only wants to make life harder for Biden.  George P. Bush at a campaign stop in Garland, Tex., last week. (Cooper Neill for The Washington Post) | The 2022 elections are here, too The first primary of the 2022 midterm season is today, in Texas. That means most of the focus is on Republicans, where there are some Trumpian candidates who are at risk of losing in primaries to slightly more establishment figures. One of those more establishment figures is George P. Bush (the nephew and grandson of two presidents), who is trying to unseat scandal-plagued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Texans will also be voting under the state's new voting law, which makes it harder for older people to vote by mail (which could hurt Republicans) and took away some voting methods popular with people of color (which could hurt Democrats and Republicans). | 
Email 
