A Sorry President

https://freebeacon.com/columns/a-sorry-president/

Column: In trying to block Trump's return, Biden made it inevitable

According to a Gallup survey released on January 7, most Americans say 
history will treat Joe Biden's presidency unfavorably. The next day, USA 
Today published an interview with Biden that reminded us why.

Biden's lack of self-awareness is incredible. He believes he would have 
beaten Donald Trump if his disastrous debate performance hadn't forced him 
from the race. Biden told reporter Susan Page that his laughable claim is 
"based on the polling." What polling—from Mars? As CNN's Harry Enten 
pointed out, when Biden withdrew from the race in July, he was on track to 
lose not only the battlegrounds but also reliably blue states such as 
Virginia, New Mexico, and New Hampshire.

Democratic elites shoved Biden aside for Kamala Harris because his June 27 
debate with Trump revealed to the world that the oldest president in 
history was not up to the job. And yet, to this day, Biden pretends that 
his age and physical and mental condition did not contribute to either his 
unpopularity or his belated decision not to run for a second term. When 
Page asked Biden delicately if he would have had the "vigor" to serve 
until January 2029, Biden replied, "I don't know." He must be the only 
person alive who's unaware that the answer to Page's question is NO.

Biden's ego led him to conclude he could gaslight the public into thinking 
that he was able to execute the duties of president until age 86. His ego 
prevented him from recognizing that the surprising Democratic performance 
in the 2022 midterm election was a perfect opportunity to announce he 
would let other, younger candidates run in a contested, competitive 
primary for his party's 2024 nomination. In the end, the attractions of 
power were too strong. Biden tried to keep up the charade. And everything 
fell apart.

The president carries a chip on his shoulder visible from space. His 
desire to prove that he's better than his predecessors, especially his 
former boss Barack Obama, was behind foreign policy blunders such as the 
retreat from Afghanistan, dilatory resupply of Ukraine, ambivalence in the 
Middle East, and blocking Nippon Steel's acquisition of U.S. Steel on 
national security grounds. The other day Biden yelled at a group of 
journalists that "I might be the oldest president, but I know more world 
leaders than any one of you have ever met in your whole g—m life!" Who 
cares? Did no one tell him that geopolitics isn't a game of Six Degrees of 
Separation?

Above the fireplace in the Oval Office hangs a portrait of FDR. In 2021, a 
group of academic flatterers told Biden that he could succeed, perhaps 
even surpass, the four-term president who gave us the New Deal and victory 
in World War II. And Biden fell for it. As usual, his reach exceeded his 
grasp. His American Rescue Plan Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS 
and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act unleashed a torrent of 
spending that contributed to record inflation, higher interest rates, and 
the national debt. Biden is unapologetic. "There are things that are going 
to create enormous wealth and work out there," he told USA Today, "but it 
takes time." Not soon enough for the Democrats.

A decade from now, voters may or may not recognize that the bridge they 
are driving over was built using money from the Bipartisan Infrastructure 
Law. But they certainly could tell, and quickly, that Biden's spending and 
energy policies were responsible for the inflation eroding their standard 
of living. Biden's argument was that government policy could weaken 
national populism by improving the fortunes of the working class. The 
opposite happened.

Why? Because voters are not dopes. You can't tell members of the working 
class that their lives are improving when the price of gas is rising, a 
trip to the grocery store eats up much of a paycheck, and asylum-seekers 
from the southern border are camping down the street.

Biden and his apologists tout job growth and a record stock market. These 
are accomplishments, to be sure, but positive macro data do not override 
voter dissatisfaction with prices and interest rates. Also, Americans are 
unhappy about more than the economy. Biden combined big spending with a 
left-wing cultural agenda. The big spending created inflation, and the 
cultural agenda turned off normal people. Not even the shiniest 
semiconductor plant in Wisconsin can silence popular outrage at DEI, 
gender ideology, open borders, and slavishness to teachers' unions.

Biden has repeated these personal and ideological errors throughout his 
months as a lame duck. It's as if the whole horrible exercise has been 
distilled into two-and-a-half months. Biden abused the pardon power twice: 
First, he forgave his son preemptively of all crimes Hunter has committed 
or may one day commit; then, he commuted the death sentences of all but 
three federal prisoners. Biden acted according to a lunatic double 
standard. Why the expansive pardon for Hunter but not for others convicted 
of similar offenses? Why spare a child murderer but not the Boston 
Marathon bomber? (To be clear, I support the death penalty and am 
disgusted by Biden's commutations.)

Part of the reason for Biden's moves is spite. He wants to "Trump-proof" 
his unpopular legacy. That's why he auctioned off materials for the border 
wall, honored Hillary Clinton and George Soros with the Presidential Medal 
of Freedom, and banned offshore drilling across a record 625 million acres 
of ocean. It’s why he told USA Today that he is considering preemptive 
pardons for allies who might be investigated by the GOP Congress and Trump 
Justice Department.

Yet the lesson of Biden's presidency is that the Left's attempts to stop 
Trump only make him stronger. "Middle-out, bottom-up" economics made 
voters look back fondly on the Trump economy. "A foreign policy for the 
middle class" made voters reminisce about the world before 2021. And 
Democratic lawfare turned the former president into a victim of a two-
tiered system of justice.

Biden is left defending decisions that history will judge—has 
judged—harshly. He is lackadaisical when he's not being defensive. At one 
point, Biden asked USA Today, "Who knows what I'm going to be when I'm 86 
years old?"

I do. When he's 86 years old, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. will still be the 
one-term president responsible for Donald Trump's return to the White 
House.

Published under: 2024 Election , Biden Administration , Donald Trump , 
Government Spending , Joe Biden , Polls


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

The disease known as Kamala Harris has been effectively treated and 
eradicated.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem.  It has none.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden 
fiasco, President Trump.  

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.