It’s open season on President Joe Biden. For an elected official who had an immensely successful and productive tenure in office, Joe Biden will leave office scorned and ridiculed by Democrats and Republicans alike. This is the happenstance of the Democratic defeats in the 2024 Election. It’s easier to dump on an aging, lame-duck outgoing president than to take responsibility for your actions. Or admit that the opposition outmuscled and outhustled you even though they had to stoop to lying and deceit to accomplish their task.
It’s fashionable to say that, at times like these, history will be kinder to President Biden than the current environment. But sadly, I do not hear very much on this subject. He is an easy scapegoat despite continuing to conduct his presidency with skill and grace until the end of his term.
Why is Everyone Dumping on the President
Partisan bickering aside, I am incredulous that the President is receiving this much scorn. Let’s examine a few of Mr. Biden’s accomplishments during his White House tenure.
- Createdย more than 16 million jobs while cutting the unemployment rate from 6.3 percentย when he took office toย 4.2 percent in November.
- Cut taxes for middle-class and working-class families and small businesses. Imposed a minimum tax on multibillion-dollar corporations and cracked down on wealthy tax cheats.
- Reduced health insurance and prescription drug costs for millions of Americans;
- Signed a bill approvingย $1.2 trillionโฏin investments to improve Americaโs roads, bridges, mass transit, rail, airports, ports, and other infrastructure and create good jobs.
- Reduced illegal crossings on our southern border below the level when Mr. Trump left office.
- In addition, Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act, which will led to the investment of $53 billion to create semiconductor manufacturing jobs in the U.S.,
- Enacted the most significantโฏgun safety reformsโฏin 30 years
- Repaired relations with allies after the Trump debacle and strengthened and expanded NATO while mobilizing the alliance to assist Ukraine in its fight against Russiaโs unprovoked invasion.
Pretty heady stuff. And that was in less than four years. Just think what an encore could have reaped.
What Happened on the Way to a Second Term
First, the ill-fated June 27 Biden/Trump debate. Even on his best days, the president was always prone to gaffes, mistakes, and his trademark stutter. But this was something totally different. Against an extremely vulnerable Trump, the president was unable to articulate even the broad strokes of his policy planks and expose an unprepared Trump who only conveyed his usual assortment of lies, mistruths, and fabrications. Trump did not win the debate; Biden lost it. The reaction snowballed from a few democratic lawmakers asking him to end his campaign to a score of emboldened elected officials loudly demanding his ouster.
The die was cast when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former President Barack Obama started urging Mr. Biden to step down. But the bough broke when former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi threatened to publicly express her opposition to his candidacy unless he halted his campaign. He suspended his campaign on July 21. This started the chorus of Republicans demanding the immediate resignation of Mr. Biden due to his reduced mental acuity. And Democrats jumped on his back for staying in the race too long, thereby reducing their chances to deny Trump a second term.
Messaging Issue
And Biden, Kamala Harris, and the rest of the Democratic establishment could never articulate all of the great things happening in the United States: Inflation at a four-year low, low unemployment, strong GDP, a booming stock market, improved world relations, better health care for all, a stabilized border, and the US remaining out of any boots-on-the-ground conflict.
Whether it was the messengers or how it was packaged, the Democrats failed to grasp that so many Americans felt like they were not better off than four years ago. Then Trump put gasoline on the fire, promoting images of a border out of control, skyrocketing inflation, and, to win back the soccer moms, the threat of transgender individuals taking over women’s high school basketball teams.
And then, after the election ended, his pardoning of his son Hunter and his lack of public appearances in the weeks following the election rubber-stamped that he was no longer in control of the country. Never mind that he was working overtime to bring peace to the Gaza Strip and pursuing additional funding for Ukraine to continue fighting the Russians. He has been acting very presidential while being touted as a weak, ineffectual president.
Closing Thoughts
Perhaps it was ill-advised for President Biden to seek another term. His mental acuity is clearly diminished, as is Mr. Trump’s, and it was time to look to a new generation of leaders. But the exodus of support from established Democrats, many of whom were re-elected due to some of the Biden administration’s successes, was callous, short-sided, and disappointing.