The Leader of the Free World, a white-haired, worn-out old man, cut him a lonely figure in Glasgow.
Joe Biden was not wrong for snorting during the opening speech at the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow. It would be the same for me.
It is not something I mind at all that he missed the ridiculous photo opportunity at Trevi Fountain last Sunday after the G20 summit. He and his fellow leaders of the world looked dumb, throwing coins into the water and making wishful thinking. What? China will magically get rid of its coal dependency.This is what it looks like.
It is also not my belief that Biden was unable to attend the Vatican’s private meeting with Pope Francis this week due to a “bathroom accident”, as some claimed.
This is politics on the playground. Biden would be proud to say “Come on! Man!”
Even if Trump himself refused to accept the result, clinging on to the hope of somehow derailing the election process all the way until January 6 — when, in shocking scenes, a rabble he had egged on stormed the Capitol — the rest of the world knew Biden would be the next President, writes Niall Ferguson
Still, it’s hard to believe that 12 months have passed since that moment on the night of the U.S. election on November 3, 2020 — just after midnight, Eastern Time — when Donald Trump’s beloved Fox News called Arizona for Biden, a sure sign that the incumbent was in trouble. He had not only lost Arizona but also lost Fox.
Even if Trump himself refused to accept the result, clinging on to the hope of somehow derailing the election process all the way until January 6 — when, in shocking scenes, a rabble he had egged on stormed the Capitol — the rest of the world knew Biden would be the next President.
Everything seemed to make sense. After all, Biden had been preparing for this moment all his life — the result of five decades of indefatigable retail politics. After four years of The Donald’s ‘fire and fury’ — of exhausting political chaos generated by the human wrecking ball elected in 2016 — Americans had voted for normalcy, a quality that the veteran senator seemed to personify.
Biden’s slim figure, his smooth smile and elegant aviator glasses are all part of his charm.Biden became the president-elect by central casting.
What a difference one year can make.
Biden, far from uniting America, turns out not to be as polarizing a president than Trump. Biden has been a polarizing President, and he’s delivered chaos.
Biden could have defeated Trump if he had won the Democratic nomination for 2016, but I doubt it. He would still be a competent, albeit ineffectual president. The sad reality for many Americans, and the rest of the globe is that Biden was too old to hold the top position.
Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him many times. The decline since his election win has been hard to witness.
In two weeks time, Trump will be turning 79. ‘Sleepy Joe,’ (Trump’s epithets seldom miss the mark) should play golf and lounge on a Florida deck, not try to lead the world’s most powerful government.
Biden could have defeated Trump if he had won the Democratic nomination for 2016, but I believe he would still be a competent, albeit ineffective President. The sad reality for many Americans, and the rest of the globe is that Biden was too old to hold the top job.
Although we have had Presidents who were able to ‘past it’ before, the expectations of Reagan’s final years was low. Biden’s handlers and advisers were guilty of making the greatest mistake. They tried to portray him as a transformative President, on par with Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.
Biden is not able to match their congressional majority, which is a harsh reality. After 1964’s landslide, the Democrats held 68 Senate seats. They had 295 House seats. They have now 50 and 221.
To seek to pass — as Biden’s administration is attempting — a succession of multi-trillion-dollar legislative measures with such slim margins was a doomed enterprise from the start. Biden is perilously close to failing to get through two of the three key bills that were supposed to define his great ‘transformation’ — one on infrastructure, one expanding the federal welfare state.
It’s unclear that Democrats will be able to reap the political benefits of these bills, even if they do come out of the legislative sausage maker.
Voters sent a clear message to Biden during this week’s municipal and state elections. Many of the voters who voted for Biden looked at his supposed ‘transformational” policies, and found that they are disgusting.
Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat by over two percentage points. He became Virginia’s next governor. New Jersey was a close race for the Democrats. This result reflected large swings. Biden had won Virginia with ten points and New Jersey by sixteen.
In Virginia, Youngkin not only mobilised Trump’s rural base, but also won over many suburban moderates — especially white women — who voted for Biden last year.
Youngkin was able to keep Trump away from him, which helped ensure that Trump’s Democratic rivals’ attempts at portraying him as Trump’s surrogate failed. Education was another important factor.
As in the UK during the UK pandemic, American schoolchildren are dissatisfied with the system. The positive outcome of the prolonged lockdowns and school shut downs was that many parents paid more attention to what their kids were learning. They were shocked at a lot of what they saw on Zoom.
It would not be true to claim that all American teachers are woke activists wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt. But it would be a downright lie to claim that Critical Race Theory (CRT) — which holds that ‘systemic racism’ is inherent in Western society — is not being widely taught in schools.
While we may have seen a few ‘past it’ presidents in the past, Reagan’s last year was a case where expectations were low. Biden’s advisors and handlers were wrong to portray him as a “transformative” President comparable with Lyndon Johnson or Franklin Roosevelt.
In fact, such ideas have been so effective that nearly every corporation, school, and college in America is now working to implement their “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” strategy.
Many believe that America’s meritocratic society of the past is witnessing a perverse restoration in racial divides. It’s almost as though white children today are being disparaged for having ‘privileges’.
Youngkin took up the issue of Virginia education and ran with it. He pledged to end CRT teaching in schools, and published a preelection editorial entitled, “Parents Matter in Education”. In a moment of clarity, Youngkin’s opponent declared, “I don’t believe parents should tell schools what to teach.” The White House appears to have signed a letter from the National School Boards Association last month, which appeared to be aimed directly at the President and seemed to link disgruntled parents to domestic terrorists. It warned of ‘attacks’ against school personnel. The FBI was then asked by Merrick Garland, Biden’s attorney general, to head a taskforce on this issue.
We have seen the start of an anti-Bidenism backlash in Virginia. It’s possible. And could that ultimately lead to every Democrat’s worst nightmare — the return of Trump? Don’t discount it.
Virginia and New Jersey are often seen as bellwethers for next year’s midterms — the congressional elections held midway through a President’s term. Democrats find alarming parallels between the results of last week and 1993’s. Voters in New Jersey and Virginia provided early indications that they were dissatisfied with Bill Clinton’s government during the 1993 election. They gave Barack Obama the exact same treatment in 2009. In both the subsequent midterm elections, Republican votes surged.
However, Virginians are almost as likely to vote for the change than New Jerseyans. Only once has Virginia elected a President’s Party governor in the last 45 years. Republicans almost certain will win back the House in 2014 and perhaps the Senate as well. It is not clear how large their margins for victory will be.
What can Joe Biden’s government do to make it work? Is the man in his 80s already an old duck?
It’s not only education that is displacing voters, unfortunately for Democrats. To most people and businesses, inflation isn’t just temporary.
In most major cities, murder has increased since the Black Lives Matter protests last year, which were triggered in part by George Floyd’s killing.
Voters delivered an unambiguous message this week in the state and municipal elections. Niall Ferguson writes that large numbers of voters who voted for Biden looked at his supposed ‘transformational” policies, and found it to be disgusting.
There is chaos on the country’s southern border, a direct consequence of the Biden administration’s early repudiation of Trump’s tough stance on immigration.
Biden’s personal approval ratings have been plummeting since August, when the abrupt and disastrous U.S. withdrawal was made from Afghanistan.
All of these factors aside, Joe Biden’s apparent personal decline isn’t the main reason his administration has fallen from being ‘transformational to, well… transitory. Biden’s team has lost confidence on every issue, including education, the economy and fighting crime.
A second thing appears clear. The Democrats are unlikely to win the midterms, if they plan on portraying the Republican party once more as a ‘Trumpian. Ironically, Trump’s near complete invisibility online is one reason why this strategy does not work. This was due to his cancellation by tech giants back in January. Absence makes the heart grow fonder — and Trump is no exception.
So the big question currently hanging over American politics is, Does Trump run to re-elect himself in 2024?
If he does, I think he wins — especially if his opponent is Vice President Kamala Harris, who seems to have all but cancelled herself.
Indeed, future historians will ask whether this was Team Biden’s biggest blunder — handing the number two job to a woman who checked all the diversity boxes (Jamaican father, Indian mother, speaks fluent ‘Wokeish’), but unfortunately leaves most voters completely cold.
Republican Glenn Youngkin beat Terry McAuliffe (pictured) by over two percentage points in order to be elected Virginia’s next governor. New Jersey saw the Democrats win only marginally. This result reflected large swings. Biden won Virginia by 10 points, New Jersey by 16.
Harris was Biden’s pick because of her close friendship with his son Beau, who died of cancer in 2015. But the Vice President is largely absent in action from Inauguration day in January.
Tasked by Biden to sort out the migration crisis on the Mexican border, she took a bizarrely long time actually to go there — not until June. The following month, Customs and Border Protection’s ‘encounters’ reached a new record.
Biden (who will be 82 by 2024) is unlikely to seek a second term. It’s also difficult to imagine Harris defeating any Republican candidate in three years.
Trump is not the only candidate, he also has the support of the Republican base, and the money to run a campaign (already over $100 million), to win the nomination. However, he still faces a difficult road that will lead to the reward of another term.
One man, Grover Cleveland, has served twice as president, but it was not consecutive. F Scott Fitzgerald said that there are no “second acts” in American life.
The fate of Act II remains to been seen. We can say with certainty that we are seeing the end of the “transformative” Biden presidency. Unfortunately, it never was.
Biden chose Harris because she was close friends with Beau, his son who died from cancer in 2015; Harris was Biden’s choice. The Vice President, however has been mostly absent from action since Inauguration day in January