“Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f*** things up,” former President Barack Obama is supposed to have quipped about Joe Biden during the 2020 primaries, and after his first year in office, no one will ever underestimate this failing and flailing president’s ability to do just that.
The last two weeks were supposed to serve as an unofficial reset for the beleaguered Oval Office occupant. The reset began with a big push to get his so-called “voting rights” bill past two recalcitrant Democratic senators and continued with trying to create an image of personal competence with his record-length press conference on Wednesday.
Not only did both efforts fail, but Biden finds the strength and determination of the entire Western alliance tested by Russian strongman Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. Neither Biden nor NATO has yet to demonstrate much strength or determination.
Meanwhile, the stock market has turned bear, gas prices are up, food prices are way up, supply chain issues remain, and there’s a trucking crisis brewing over Biden’s vaccine mandate.
Biden has been losing Hispanic voters, is now losing black voters, and not even a third of American voters of any race want him at the top of the ticket in 2024.
David Axelrod — the political operator sharp enough to foist the unexperienced Barack Obama on us — had a blunt warning for Biden:
What we learned when I was with President Obama during the Great Recession is even as we were making progress, if we went out there and touted it in the wrong way, people resented it, because they didn’t feel it in their lives… We are facing this inflation problem that people see in their lives. They don’t want to be told about all the progress we’re making and how well. They’ll know when they are — they will feel the progress, you know, so don’t try and sell them what they won’t believe.
“Who you gonna believe,” Biden basically tells people, “me or your own lyin’ grocery bill?”
Washington Democrats are in Full-Bore Panic Mode, with ABC News reporting that “Democrats turn on each other as Biden agenda stalls.”
Even CNN seems to have snapped out of denial, warning last week that “the White House political operation is heading into the midterms unprepared and unresponsive even to basic requests for help or information.”
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Beta O’Rourke — remember him? — doesn’t want Biden tainting his doomed-to-fail race for Texas governor.
The kindest words I’ve seen written about Flailing Joe these last two weeks came from left-leaning pollster John Zogby, who gave Biden a “Grade C” in the Washington Examiner’s weekly roundup.
“His press conference performance was a start,” Zogby argued, “but he did attract controversy with a misstatement about Russia’s threat in Ukraine.”
It’s difficult to understand how Zogby could possibly describe that presser as “a start.” If it was, it reminds me of my first driving lesson in an old ’75 Scout II. I turned the key in the ignition as instructed, slowly removed my left foot from the clutch as instructed, then suddenly finished removing it much too quickly, resulting in the SUV lurching forward a few feet and then stalling out.
And Biden didn’t just “attract controversy” over Ukraine: He set off a major White House scramble while also revealing his lack of preparation and seriousness.
While Zogby admits Biden has a “long way to go” to recover, “I am going to give him an average grade because he got out there and faced the press, told his story, and at least is trying to get his message out.”
I must be quite frank here.
The Gentleman’s C is an old if not always honorable tradition. It’s typically awarded by professors to some not-too-bright family scion who shows up for class, does the work (or at least makes a pretense at it), and generally minds his manners.
One does not award a Gentleman’s C to an as***** who accuses half of his own nation of being racists.
That’s not gentlemanly, and Biden doesn’t deserve a pass.
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