Only a year after the inauguration, much is being made in the press of the Biden presidency. Is it far too soon to pass judgment on the new president, or is he destined for doom and already a failure?
Politics
After 4 years of the trainwreck known as Donald Trump, American voters proved at the polls that they were desperate for new leadership — and turned the reins of the country over to President Joe Biden. Now, following a series of gaffes and legislative failures, Mr. Biden’s poll numbers are in the tank.
According to a recent CNN Poll of Polls, President Biden is hovering around 42% approval, while a Quinnipiac poll from January places him at 33%.
What went wrong?
Mr. Biden’s Build Back Better legislation ran into congressional roadblocks, as did the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Democrats with the ultra-slim US Senate majority have been infighting and unable to convince Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona to vote along party lines in order to overcome GOP pushback. The president has not been able to gain ground on making the filibuster Republican-proof. Although COVID-19 is still a factor in day-to-day lives, Mr. Biden has hit a few bumps steering the country through the Delta and Omicron variants. Additionally, he has held fewer press conferences than his predecessors. Detractors have made much of him being the oldest US president ever at 79 and have mocked his blunders, including calling Vice-President Kamala Harris “president” on a few occasions.
The reality is that Republicans are playing politics and have been very successful in blocking every piece of legislation introduced by Mr. Biden, effectively creating the illusion that the Biden presidency is a failure. Infighting among Democrats in Congress has been a thorn in the president’s side, especially since Republicans are notorious for sticking together while Democrats are not. The coronavirus is a once-in-a-generation crisis and has been handled 100 times better than Donald Trump. As for Mr. Biden’s gaffes and blunders while speaking, we can’t forget that he has a speech impediment and a history of stuttering. Although his advanced age could be a factor going forward, it is almost certainly not responsible for him making a few oral mistakes every now and then.
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“Everyone needs to take a breath: It’s been one year. [The] headlines could just as easily read, ‘Joe Biden Fails to Fix Every Problem in the World in 365 days.'” – Kirsten Powers, CNN
So, is the Biden presidency already a failure? It is far too soon to tell after only 1 year in office. However, if Democrats on the Hill can somehow convince Manchin and Sinema to work in conjunction with the rest of the party, Mr. Biden’s agenda and success would appear more positive to the American public.
Whoever is saying all this about Biden is making a lot out of nothing. He got that big infrastructure bill passed his first year. That was a big deal. He has been managing covid the best he can too. The people that need to get it together is the Dems because if Repubs take over congress it is going to get ugly for everybody.