Joe Biden Is a Dud

By Charles C. W. Cooke

Monday, September 25, 2023

 

Unless my political antennae have been rendered permanently defective by the sweltering Florida sun, I seem finally to be detecting some grudging acceptance from America’s steadfastly obstinate press corps that, in spite of the herculean effort to prop him up in which its members have engaged, a supermajority of voters in these United States still thinks that President Joe Biden is a lemon. Perhaps this acknowledgment is the result of the sheer scale of the polling evidence that is now before everyone’s eyes. Maybe it is the product of the healing passage of time. Plausibly it has been driven by the fear that, if Biden continues unchecked, Donald Trump will return to the White House. Who knows? What matters more is that, at long last, the realization has arrived that Americans do not like their president and that there is little point in denying it.

 

Insofar as it goes, this development represents progress. But, until the media come to understand the obvious reasons that have caused Americans to dislike Joe Biden, it will remain lost at sea. Day in, day out, I read the coverage of this presidency, and day in, day out, I encounter a journalistic cadre that believes that voters are being monstrously unfair in their evaluations. Invariably, the question that underpins any critical discussion of this president is “why?” — a question that is usually asked with a disbelieving scoff. Why does he have persistently low approval ratings? Why don’t people like “Bidenomics”? Why is good ol’ Joe considered untrustworthy? Why does the electorate think he’s too old? Usually, these questions are answered with excuses: Actually, It’s the fault of the presidency itself, or of “both sides” journalism, or of the lies of Fox News and of the Republican Party! Actually, the economy is good! Actually, this White House has achieved a lot! Actually, there’s no evidence of wrongdoing — and have you seen how much Biden loves his son?

 

Well, I have a simpler explanation for President Biden’s predicament — and, if I may say so myself, it is one that dovetails nicely with his polling: Joe Biden is unpopular because Joe Biden is terrible at being president of the United States.

 

One can ask “what about Trump?” until one is blue in the face, and it will not change this fact one iota. On Election Day 2020 — and, potentially, again on Election Day next year — Americans were asked to consider whether they preferred Biden or Trump. Thereafter, Biden was on his own. “But Trump!” is a relevant answer to “why did you vote for Joe Biden?” It is not a relevant answer to “do you think Biden is a good president?” And, just to hit the nail one more time: Joe Biden is not a good president. Joe Biden is a senile blowhard, a partisan Dunning-Kruger case who has stupidly allowed himself to be convinced that he is destined for greatness, and who has ruined his reputation as a result. I will grant that Joe Biden cannot help that he is extremely old. But the rest? That’s on him.

 

It could have been different. Had he wished to, Biden could have come into office in 2021 and explained that he had inherited a situation that was incompatible with grand plans. Acknowledging the profound risk of inflation and the dire condition of the Treasury, he could have insisted that it was time for sobriety and retrenchment. Pointing to his predecessor’s lack of respect for the law, and his own history as a legislator, he could have signaled to his party that he would remain a stickler for the rules and a champion of the limits on his own power. Aware that trust in Washington, D.C., had hit a nadir, he could have followed through on his promise to avoid fashionable falsities and preposterous lies. He had run as a caretaker, and he could have governed as a caretaker, too.

 

Alas, he did nothing of the sort. Instead, he behaved like a man who had only a few days left to live. In his first year alone, he pushed through $2 trillion in unnecessary spending, driving inflation to a four-decade high and making high interest-rates an inevitability; he defied the Supreme Court, issuing an eviction moratorium that he knew full well was unconstitutional; he pretended that the massive spike in unemployment that had marred 2020 was the fault of Donald Trump, rather than of Covid-19; he rushed the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, leading to chaos, death, and embarrassment; he opened up the border, facilitating a crisis that did not exist when he was sworn in; he took aim at core American institutions, including the judiciary, the filibuster, and distributed control of elections; and, as if to provide a preview of his next disastrous year in office, he began teasing a flagrantly illegal and absurdly regressive “student-loan forgiveness” plan that his own party had vocally admitted was beyond his authority.

 

At each stage, on each topic, Biden has got it wrong. Since January of 2021, there has been no cheap shot that Biden has declined to take, no layup he hasn’t blown, no siren song that he has manfully managed to resist. As a campaigner, Biden hoped Americans would see him as the adult missing from the room. As president, he has more closely resembled a superficial adolescent. Last year, Biden became so riddled with fervor and desperation that he allowed his presidential Twitter account to be used to “troll” Republican politicians for having supported a Covid-relief package that his own party had unanimously backed. It was pathetic, but it was par for the course.

 

Americans noticed. They noticed that the president and his party were profligate, and that the result was large grocery bills, high gas prices, and creeping interest rates. They noticed that the president had routinely violated the law, and then demagogued at those who complained. They noticed that the White House lied — all the time — about matters big and matters small; that, despite all his rhetoric about “honor,” Joe Biden and his family seemed to be surrounded by a large cloud of corrupt-looking smoke. And, yes, they noticed that, when representing them at home and abroad, he looked like a cartoon skull. Sometimes, politics is complicated. Sometimes, it’s refreshingly simple. Joe Biden is disliked as president because Joe Biden is dislikeable as president. There’s no conspiracy at work; he’s just a dud.