task0778
Diamond Member
Below is part of an article in Politico that deals with Joe Biden and his Administration:
After a lot of happy talk over the past half-year, the real Biden presidency has emerged. It is not a colossus bestriding the political universe, rather a middling administration, at best, that will have trouble imposing its will even on its own party in Congress.
Biden was always fundamentally a default president, elected in opposition to Donald Trump and initially buoyed by the contrast to his outlandish predecessor, who ended his time in office in the worst manner possible.
Now, he’s lost his foil in Trump, who is still issuing harsh and thunderous press releases, but isn’t driving every news cycle or occasioning mass protests against him in the streets.
The best case for Biden was that he could ride in the slipstream of good economic growth and a receding pandemic, beaten back by the vaccines that began to be administered before Biden took office. Instead, the labor market is still rocky and the Delta variant has surged, leading to headlines about overstretched health care systems that most people assumed that we’d left behind in the spring of 2020.
With his honeymoon gone, with Trump less of a factor, with economic conditions and the state of the virus not as favorable as expected, Biden had been stripped down to a more natural level of support and sliding in the polls since around June.
Then, he made the first major, historic decision of his presidency, and completely botched it. Biden has tried to deflect responsibility for his exit from Afghanistan onto Trump and his execrable deal with the Taliban. Yet, the decision to quit when he did and how he did was all on Biden.
He hasn’t shown a hint of doubt or regret. The notion of leaving Afghanistan is popular in theory; the way Biden did it is radioactive in practice. The White House may tell itself that Biden’s decision will come to seem farsighted, and its possible that the harmful political effect will wear off over time. BUT:
Leaving Americans behind in a foreign country after an enemy of the United States swept to power and chased us out with our tails between our legs, though, is not likely to be forgotten, certainly not in 2022 or 2024, if ever.
The prime directive for any president is, to the extent possible, to seem in control. Biden failed this test repeatedly during the evacuation crisis. Events moved faster than he did and his rationales for what was happening had to be constantly revised, until he settled on the explanation that it is impossible to end any war in good order.
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The most notable feature of the resulting Biden drop in the polls that has him underwater in both the RealClearPolitics and 538 polling averages is his awful standing among independents. In a recent Washington Post/ABC News, he was at 36 percent approval among independents (and 44 percent overall). A new Economist/YouGov poll has him at 35 percent among independents (and 43 percent overall).
The article goes on to discuss the razor thin margin that he has in the Senate and only slightly better in the House, and not everybody is on-board with his high-spending proposals. On their side, the moderates want less while the progressives want more, and each side is saying they won't support anything that doesn't give them want they want. Lowry (the author) says that Joe Manchin is telling people that will only support $1.5 tril out of the $3.5 tril that Biden and the progressives want. So, will the dems pass anything at all, even through reconciliation where they only need 51 votes? And hw will that affect Biden's presidency, where nobody is happy on their side or ours either.
And no mention was made of the disaster on the southern border, with so many people coming into the US, some of whom are infected with COVID or are undesirables, maybe even terrorists. Off-hand, I can't think of much of anything that the Left can point to and say well, he's doing a good job at that. And the guy has no energy, he looks really old and tired, and can't get through some days without calling a timeout. A lot of people are thinking that he ain't the one calling the shots in the WH, cuz he's just not up to it. At least sometimes, anyway. Lowry says the Biden Administration is middling, but I'm not sure it's even that good.
After a lot of happy talk over the past half-year, the real Biden presidency has emerged. It is not a colossus bestriding the political universe, rather a middling administration, at best, that will have trouble imposing its will even on its own party in Congress.
Biden was always fundamentally a default president, elected in opposition to Donald Trump and initially buoyed by the contrast to his outlandish predecessor, who ended his time in office in the worst manner possible.
Now, he’s lost his foil in Trump, who is still issuing harsh and thunderous press releases, but isn’t driving every news cycle or occasioning mass protests against him in the streets.
The best case for Biden was that he could ride in the slipstream of good economic growth and a receding pandemic, beaten back by the vaccines that began to be administered before Biden took office. Instead, the labor market is still rocky and the Delta variant has surged, leading to headlines about overstretched health care systems that most people assumed that we’d left behind in the spring of 2020.
With his honeymoon gone, with Trump less of a factor, with economic conditions and the state of the virus not as favorable as expected, Biden had been stripped down to a more natural level of support and sliding in the polls since around June.
Then, he made the first major, historic decision of his presidency, and completely botched it. Biden has tried to deflect responsibility for his exit from Afghanistan onto Trump and his execrable deal with the Taliban. Yet, the decision to quit when he did and how he did was all on Biden.
He hasn’t shown a hint of doubt or regret. The notion of leaving Afghanistan is popular in theory; the way Biden did it is radioactive in practice. The White House may tell itself that Biden’s decision will come to seem farsighted, and its possible that the harmful political effect will wear off over time. BUT:
Leaving Americans behind in a foreign country after an enemy of the United States swept to power and chased us out with our tails between our legs, though, is not likely to be forgotten, certainly not in 2022 or 2024, if ever.
The prime directive for any president is, to the extent possible, to seem in control. Biden failed this test repeatedly during the evacuation crisis. Events moved faster than he did and his rationales for what was happening had to be constantly revised, until he settled on the explanation that it is impossible to end any war in good order.
.
.
The most notable feature of the resulting Biden drop in the polls that has him underwater in both the RealClearPolitics and 538 polling averages is his awful standing among independents. In a recent Washington Post/ABC News, he was at 36 percent approval among independents (and 44 percent overall). A new Economist/YouGov poll has him at 35 percent among independents (and 43 percent overall).
Opinion | The Real Biden Presidency Emerges
It is not a colossus bestriding the political universe, rather a middling administration, at best, that will have trouble imposing its will even on its own party in Congress.
www.politico.com
The article goes on to discuss the razor thin margin that he has in the Senate and only slightly better in the House, and not everybody is on-board with his high-spending proposals. On their side, the moderates want less while the progressives want more, and each side is saying they won't support anything that doesn't give them want they want. Lowry (the author) says that Joe Manchin is telling people that will only support $1.5 tril out of the $3.5 tril that Biden and the progressives want. So, will the dems pass anything at all, even through reconciliation where they only need 51 votes? And hw will that affect Biden's presidency, where nobody is happy on their side or ours either.
And no mention was made of the disaster on the southern border, with so many people coming into the US, some of whom are infected with COVID or are undesirables, maybe even terrorists. Off-hand, I can't think of much of anything that the Left can point to and say well, he's doing a good job at that. And the guy has no energy, he looks really old and tired, and can't get through some days without calling a timeout. A lot of people are thinking that he ain't the one calling the shots in the WH, cuz he's just not up to it. At least sometimes, anyway. Lowry says the Biden Administration is middling, but I'm not sure it's even that good.
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