I would not characterize Brian Beutler as a super optimistic fellow and certainly not one to blow smoke about the Democrats. But in today’s newsletter he shares a little bit of good news which, coming from him, is reassuring. The short version is that over the past couple weeks President Biden has caught up with Donald Trump, as depicted in the Economist’s polling average above. Now that’s not the whole story, or even an entirely good story, as I’ll detail momentarily. But deeper in the tea leaves, most recent developments are also pretty favorable to Biden and (thus) bad for Trump. Consistent with the head-to-head polls, Biden’s approval ratings have ticked up (or, for copium abstainers, his disapproval rating has ticked down) while Trump, who has been more popular of late than in many years, has seen his numbers fall. But to me, the best case for optimism lies outside the realm of survey data. It’s better for Biden to be slightly ahead than slightly behind, but what he needs more than anything is upside potential to open a large lead. And as mainstream-media fixation on his age has faded, his real long-run advantages have become clearer. Since American elections are zero-sum, you can spot Biden’s upside potential in two buckets. Anything that’s good news for Biden is good news for Biden (QED); but anything that’s bad news for Trump is also good news for Biden. There’s good news for Biden in both buckets. -The economy is bullish and charging, with growth driven by productivity while…