When he campaigned for the presidency Joe Bide talked about how he would work positively for all Americans, with all Americans. How he would cooperate with colleagues in both Houses of Congress and from both parties. Reaching across the aisle to secure a bipartisan way forward.

His claims were built on a long track record of being a dealmaker. Someone who would negotiate in good faith, stick to his word and where necessary compromise to secure progress. He recognised that politics is often about satisficing. Not getting everything you want but getting enough to make a difference.

Sadly, that skill was beginning to lose its currency in the Obama administration. Senator Mitch McConnell pursued an increasingly scorched earth policy ignoring constitutional precedents, blocking the presidents power to appoint to the Supreme Court for the whole of his last year in office.

This, no quarter, approach to politics was placed on speed with the advent of President Trump. After four years of aggressive partisan politics, part of the attraction of Joe Biden was his contrasting personal integrity and obvious democratic instinct to work in partnership across the democratic spectrum.

He has tried to do it. He has negotiated endlessly with the GOP and even with two of his own senators to try to get his key legislation through. The scale of his programme has been slashed dramatically and attempts to get billionaires to pay their share of the costs has been defeated. Whatever does get through the legislature will be a shadow of his intended transformational programme.

Interestingly, in his three terms in office FD Roosevelt faced similarly aggressive opposition from the Congress. Like Biden he was a person who could see the need to compromise occasionally. But unlike President Biden he did not focus all his efforts within the Washington beltway. He used the emerging social media of the time, the wireless, to speak directly to the people with his fireside chats. He did exhausting cross country tours to speak directly to people.

He spoke with clarity and in simple terms about what he was trying to achieve and, more importantly, why it mattered to the people he was speaking with.

Ex President Trump is thought to have understood the importance of social media and the need to speak directly, in person, to his followers. The reality may be his personality required the adulation of crowds, in person and in the Twittersphere. Who knows?

Clearly, Joe Biden should not ape Trump. But he should learn from his building grass root support for policies and political positions thus placing strong pressure on members of the Senate and House to follow his lead.

The result in the Virginia gubernatorial is a warning light. There may be all manner of local factors that have effected this race however the shift from the presidential election is alarming. It demonstrates the Biden message is not getting through. Just not being Trump would be enough for many millions of people but it is not enough to secure the Midterms and certainly not enough for 2024.

Biden has worked really hard to explain the importance and benefit of his programme to law makers, it is now time to focus on the law takers.