The country has the Biden blues bad, and that ain’t good.
Joe
Biden, 46th president of the United States, has pushed all the buttons
that were supposed to be the right ones and they have produced no result
or the wrong result.
Domestically,
things have been bad enough. He hasn’t convinced anyone that he has a
viable border policy and his point person on the issue, Vice President
Kamala Harris, has no ideas and an aversion to being reminded that she
is the policy chief of the border.
His
stimulus package, so timely at the time, now appears to have
overstimulated the economy, leading to the worst inflation since the
1970s.
Congress
frustrates the president routinely. The man who spent 36 years in
Congress is unable to find consensus. To the shame of the Democrats, the
Guantanamo Bay prison remains open.
Crime is rampant, cities are again unsafe. The administration has been silent, pointing up a sustained ideas drought.
Abroad,
things have been worse and more consequential. As vice president, Biden
prided himself on his foreign policy nous. But as president, he seems
to be a study in foreign policy infelicity. Doing the right thing at the
wrong time is his special talent.
The
speedy, ill-considered withdrawal from Afghanistan is emblematic of the
Biden blunders. It led one to wonder what he is told in those daily
briefings? What was he told that led him to believe that he should build
on Donald Trump’s foolish negotiation with the Taliban? Biden seized
that misbegotten idea and executed it.
Similarly,
when a column of asylum seekers was making its way up South America
from as far as Chile, didn’t the daily briefings mention this; explain
that this appeared to be well-financed. If he weren’t told, what action
did he take to make sure there wouldn’t be such failures going forward?
Biden
persuaded Germany not to certify the Nord Stream 2 pipeline under the
Baltic Sea, taking natural gas from Russia directly to Germany.
That
Germany has willingly climbed between the sheets with the Russian Bear
wasn’t Biden’s fault, but Nord Stream 2 was a long time in planning and
construction. It all got going during the Obama years when Biden was
being thought of as the vice president who understood foreign policy.
That
was the time to dissuade Germany, not when it is complete and threatens
to drive a wedge between Germany and NATO. Friends don’t let friends
date the bear. They warn them off.
Now
comes the Winter Olympics in China. Taking your marbles and going home
isn’t a good strategy. The game goes on and you are out of it, as with
Biden’s diplomatic boycott of the games.
That
led not to a better deal for the Uighurs, but to the world being
treated to innumerable images of Chinese President Xi Jinping and
Russian President Vladimir Putin together — images that suggested they
represent a new Axis that can dismember the world as they wish.
Those
images are more damaging than any agreements the two caudillos
concluded; they cement the sense that the West is defenseless against
dictators.
In
his administration, Biden’s propensity to do the right thing and get
the wrong result is demonstrated in his relationship with Harris. He has
worked hard to elevate her to a status she isn’t earning for herself.
The administration now bills itself as the Biden-Harris administration.
It was never the Obama-Biden administration.
Biden’s
cabinet is filled with the right people for a charity event: good
people who are likable and bland to a fault. The exceptions are
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Commerce Secretary Gina
Raimondo. Sadly, neither is in a position where they can redirect the
ship of state or even nudge it back on course. If you don’t have the
mettle yourself and lack the needed cunning, hire it.
On Twitter: @llewellynking2
Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of "White House Chronicle" on PBS. |