In 2020, Biden managed to win the presidency almost by default. If right-leaning Americans aren’t careful, he’ll sleepwalk his way to reelection.
Tonight’s State of the Union address is set to be a disgrace. In his now-trademark broken English, President Biden intends to spin a preposterous tale of heroism in which he, good ol’ folksy Joe from Scranton, Pa., left the political sidelines one last time and restored the United States to the normalcy that its put-upon citizenry had long craved. Among the achievements that Biden will claim are that he has created more jobs than any other president in history; that he has brought inflation down from a high that predated him; that he has ended the Covid emergency that his predecessor engendered; and that he has faithfully saved democratic norms from the arrayed forces of evil with which, sadly, he is forced to contend every day.
And, if the Republicans don’t get their act together, he’s going to get away with it.
Looked at objectively, Joe Biden’s presidency has been a disaster. The guy’s a fraud, a liar, and a crank. He disrespects his oath of office, ignores evidence that is unhelpful to his cause, and refuses to engage with the public at anything approaching a normal rate. His mind is slow, his speech is meandering, his grasp of the topic at hand ranges from tenuous to nonexistent, and most of the time, he looks half-dead. If voters were free to choose a president from an unrestricted pool of candidates, there is nobody in America who would choose Joe Biden.
I am told that it is “mean” to say such things. And perhaps it is. But I am not the only one who has noticed that Biden’s lost a step. Per an NBC poll released last month, only 28 percent of Americans believe that he possesses “the necessary mental and physical health to be president.” That’s less than one-third of Americans — around the same number who believe that Biden is “competent” (31 percent) and that he is “able to handle a crisis” (32 percent). Add in that just 34 percent of Americans consider Biden to be “honest and trustworthy,” and his problem comes clearly into focus: He’s a decrepit, mendacious, belligerent fool.
As for his alleged understudies? They must make the Democrats hope that medical doctors will master corporeal reanimation before primary season begins. Vice President Harris has all the charm and finesse of a villain’s sidekick in a straight-to-VHS Disney sequel. Pete Buttigieg makes the instruction manual that came with your microwave seem fascinating by contrast. And the others are The Others for a reason. Years of catastrophic losses at both the congressional and state levels have turned the Democrats’ bench into firewood. It seems extraordinary that, in comparison to the alternatives, Biden is the best of the bunch, but indeed he is, and deep down he knows it.
In a normal political environment, Biden would already be a lame duck. But, alas, we do not live in a normal political environment. We live in an environment in which, despite having tried to stage a coup, Donald Trump is considered a viable contender for the Republican nomination; a sizeable portion of the conservative movement remains willing to reward public figures who make a show of “fighting,” even when those figures are punching themselves in the face; and the GOP’s primary electorate has begun to a show a preference for candidates who once would have been deemed too outré to warrant a guest appearance on The Munsters. Ultimately, politics comes down to a simple question: “As opposed to what?” And however unsuited to the role of president of the United States Joe Biden might now have proven himself to be, it does not follow automatically that the Republican alternative will be deemed more desirable.
Which is all a long way of saying that when you tune into tonight’s State of the Union and wonder how this confused, semi-mummified demagogue got anywhere near the Oval Office, you might consider the possibility that, in spite of everything that is so obviously wrong with him, he is going to get away with the ruse. Twice now, Biden has won by default. He made it out of the 2020 Democratic primaries as the least-unpalatable option in the field, and he won the 2020 presidential election simply by virtue of running against Donald Trump. Every right-leaning person in America should be laser-focused on ensuring that he doesn’t sleepwalk his way to a third victory. Are they? If they are, I’ve yet to see it.
