President Biden plans a relentless focus on the economy during his re-election race, even as much of the public doubts the country's direction.

• Why it matters: It's a high-risk strategy, Axios' Hans Nichols writes.

🎲 The gamble: If unemployment stays low and productivity holds steady, Biden would be set to ride a healthy economy to a second term.

• But if the economy enters a deep recession before November 2024, the president would have spent precious political capital demanding credit — when voters would be more inclined to hand out blame.

Biden — who reiterated to ABC's David Muir last week that he intends to run, but hasn't made an official announcement — today takes his message of economic optimism to Virginia Beach.

• He'll argue that Republicans plan to increase health care costs for millions of Americans.
• Next week, Biden releases his budget. He'll emphasize his plans to cut deficit spending by $2 trillion over 10 years — and push House Republicans to specify what programs they want to cut.

Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Economic Council, told Axios: "We think the underlying numbers about consumer spending and business investment are also positive ... They show that people have a lot of confidence in their financial condition and where the economy is headed."

• "As we've always said, we expect there to be some bumps along the way as we transition to steady and stable growth."

🧮 By the numbers: In addition to the 12 million jobs added to Biden's economy, officials highlight the 3.4% unemployment rate — a 50-year low.

• Biden takes the record 10.5 million small business applications in his first two years as individual votes of confidence.

🐘 The other side: Republicans continue to attack Biden over the cost of everyday goods and are convinced the public shares their skepticism about Biden’s economic record.

🥊 Reality check: Biden doesn't control the velocity or direction of the economy.

• The economy's fate is largely in the hands of the Fed — which remains concerned about inflation, and is likely to continue to raise interest rates to slow down the economy.

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Jonathan Capehart quit The Washington Post editorial board after a dispute over an editorial about 2024 politics, leaving the paper with an all-white editorial board, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer has learned.

• Why it matters: Capehart left the board at a time when The Post — based in a city where nearly half the population is Black — is swirling in internal discontent over the paper's leadership.

By comparison, The New York Times editorial board has five people of color.

State of play: Since joining The Post as a member of its editorial board in 2007, Capehart has become one of The Post's most visible and influential commentators.

• Capehart — who remains a Post columnist, associate editor and podcaster — quit in December as a member of the board, which debates editorials that represent the views of The Post as an institution.

What happened: Capehart, a Black and gay Pulitzer winner, left the board in early December, following a disagreement over a Dec. 6 editorial about the runoff between Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) and Herschel Walker.

• He turned in his resignation to Post editorial-page editor David Shipley shortly after the piece ran.

A Post spokesperson told Axios that The Post's Opinion section "is committed to diverse representation in all its pages," and that the section "plans to further expand the range of voices in the months to come."

• "Writers like Keith Richburg and Mili Mitra regularly contribute editorials. In recent months, the section also announced the addition of several contributing columnists, including Theodore Johnson, Natasha Sarin and Bina Venkataraman, among several others," the spokesperson added.

📊 What we're watching: The Washington Post continues to face business pressure as The New York Times continues to add digital subscribers.

• The Post didn't break even last year, with heavy investments in newsroom additions meant to expand The Post's national footprint.

Share this story ... Sign up here for Sara Fischer's weekly Axios Media Trends, out later today.

Editor's note: This item has been corrected to reflect that the Times has five editorial board members of color, not three. It’s also been updated to remove an incorrect sentence saying Capehart was the only Black person on the Washington Post's board for the past 15 years.

The U.S. poverty rate is likely to rise this year, Axios Markets co-author Emily Peck reports.

• One of the last remaining major COVID relief programs — the expansion of SNAP benefits, a.k.a. food stamps — ends with February benefits, pushing about 32 million Americans off a "hunger cliff" in March.

Why it matters: Since 2020, massive expansions of funding for programs that serve low-income Americans have lowered poverty rates meaningfully for adults and children. That era is mostly ending.

• "People are going to be hungrier," said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, deputy executive director for the Center for Law and Social Policy.

🧮 By the numbers: The SNAP emergency allotments kept 4.2 million people out of poverty, reducing poverty rates for children by 14% in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to an Urban Institute report published last year.

• The enhancements already ended in 18 states, affecting 9 million people.
• Advocates for the poor say they've seen more people in those places struggling to buy food — at a time when food prices are high, making every dollar count.

🛒 A few new permanent benefits came out of the COVID era — including a food benefit, Summer EBT, that will provide $391 per child when school is out to help with groceries.

🔮 What's next: Federal grants to help with housing and childcare expenses are also expected to run out this year. A provision to simplify Medicaid enrollment also is ending.

• Keep reading.

During Black History month, Axios went looking to see what became of sites that made it into the "Negro Motorist Green Book" — a guide that offered Black travelers tips during Jim Crow.

• Reporters from Des Moines, Iowa, to Albuquerque, N.M., found that buildings that once hosted jazz legends and civil rights leaders are gone. Others found structures still standing.

See more photos ... Get Axios Local — in 26 cities, with 4 more soon.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) — out today with a campaign-style book — "The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival" — makes no bones about his national plans:

• The conclusion is called "Make America Florida."

"Taking strong stands will engender blowback from the left-media complex and may temporarily impact a leader’s political standing," DeSantis writes.

• "Florida has shown that we have the capacity to win against these elites."

DeSantis, 44, also writes about the battle with breast cancer by his wife, Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, beginning in 2021: "The entire ordeal was a reminder to both of us that there are no guarantees in life."

• "You never know what curveballs life may throw at you. Every day is a gift, so make the most of it — and don’t look back."

Book excerpt ... Go deeper: "DeSantis readies de facto presidential campaign," by Zachary Basu.

Samantha Power — administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. — writes optimistically in the March/April 2023 issue of Foreign Affairs that "early 2022 may prove to be a high-water mark for authoritarianism":

"Putin's ambitions to dominate Ukraine failed miserably, thanks to the unwavering resolve and courage of the Ukrainian people. Putin made mistake after strategic mistake while the free people of Ukraine successfully mobilized, innovated, and adapted."

"Democracy is not in decline," Power insists. "Rather, it is under attack."

• "After years of democratic backsliding, the world’s autocrats are finally on the defensive."

Keep reading ... Explore the issue.

TIME — first published on March 3, 1923— today begins a yearlong centennial celebration of the power of its iconic red border.

The first issue of TIME ... and the 100th-anniversary issue, out today.

• "A Century of Impact": Covers through the years.

The gonzo R-rated horror comedy "Cocaine Bear" sniffed up a surprisingly strong $23.1 million in its opening weekend. Marvel's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" shrank unusually quickly in its second weekend, AP reports.

• "Quantumania" was still No. 1, with an estimated $32.2 million in ticket sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
• But the "Ant-Man" sequel, hit with some of the worst reviews and audience scores of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, dropped a steep 70% in its second weekend.

Universal Pictures' "Cocaine Bear" rampaged through multiplexes, scoring notably above expectations.

• Made for about $35 million, "Cocaine Bear" stirred up plenty of buzz just from its title and its made-to-go-viral trailer.

Watch the trailer ... Movie backstory.