Axelrod: Biden 'pride' may cost him election

[Sympthsical]

146. No offense but

I remember very vividly a conversation we had, when inflation around 9%, and you made a similar argument. "I don't see any prices at the grocery store going up. People are just making it up." (paraphrasing from memory of course, but it really stood out to me at the time which is why I remember it)

Which was really . . . kind of something to say. So maybe perception and reality aren't meshing?

I don't know what to tell you. I see the cost increases with my own eyes. Rents. The cost of food. Energy costs. All up up up, and people's paychecks aren't keeping up with these changes. I know what the data say, the nationwide data, but I see it on the ground all over the country. I watch my nieces and nephews in their 20s, and they're struggling. We are constantly giving them money to smooth things out for them, and they are not being idle. They have jobs. I see my renter friends trying to put their paychecks to meet the costs. People have been discussing their electric bills nonstop since January.

For someone to come down, "No, I don't see it. There are not problems." It's just not a good political posture.

I'm fine. My partner and I are awesome. But that doesn't mean we don't see that other people are struggling. The disconnect in not observing what people are screaming all over the place is happening is terrible election politics. It can't be ostriched. Gaza and all that mess doesn't worry me about November. This kind of thing does.