Joe Biden: Consequential? Yes. Competent? No.

Based solely on the White House Press Office’s stubborn protestations of President(ish) Joe Biden’s attentive stewardship, his surpassing competency and the pro-Biden media’s “blameless” narrative, one might conclude that America is two-plus years into President Donald Trump’s catastrophic second term.

Trump remains the left’s comprehensive excuse for Biden’s inadequacies. The lousy economy? Trump. Debt? Trump. Inflation? Trump. Foreign policy failures? Trump. Immigration crises? Trump. Political polarization? Trump. Toxic train derailments? Trump.

Their narrative is bolstered by the fact that Trump has remained visible since leaving office in January, 2021. Accordingly, some still find the administration’s and media’s reflexive blame-Trump litany persuasive.

It’s an absurd leap, though, to keep blaming Trump in year three of Biden’s “Build Back Better” presidency.

The left’s deflections are not new. In order to explain America’s problems while excusing another Democrat they favored, media partisans began shifting the narrative during Barack Obama’s second term.

For example, in a Washington Post article entitled “It’s virtually impossible to be a successful modern president,” writer Chris Cillizza pivoted from the left’s threadbare blame-the-predecessor tactic to blaming the job of president itself.

Cillizza began:

“Being president is the most powerful job in the world. At which you will almost certainly fail.”

…And continued:

“Why? For lots of reasons up to and including:

“The decline of the bully pulpit as a persuasion mechanism

“The deep partisanship present not only in Congress but also in the electorate more broadly

“The splintering of the mainstream media/the rise of social media.”

In effect, Cillizza conceded Barack Obama’s failed presidency, but insisted it was not Obama’s fault. Apparently, the job is just too big for anyone to master. (For the record, does anyone remember media – mainstream or social – making similar excuses for Obama’s Republican predecessor?)

The article was a media two-fer. Not only did Cillizza attempt to absolve Obama, a media creation, he avoided apologizing for or even explaining the national media’s failure – twice – to properly vet or ask tough questions of a candidate who was clearly unprepared to assume the responsibilities of the presidency.

Cillizza ignored the possibility that, at legacy media’s urging, America just elected a lousy president – twice.

And, now, thrice.

But, although they are still trying, the self-styled “intellectuals” at the Washington Post and New York Times, et al, can no longer hide Joe Biden’s witless mediocrity or disguise the fact that Biden may be the most feckless chief executive in American history. Their stubborn defense has done much to destroy national media’s credibility.

Joe Biden’s tenure has been an utter disaster. His manifest liabilities transcend his advanced age, physical infirmities, and creeping senescence.

Biden makes statements that aren’t merely false, but ridiculous: He has claimed that his hyper-inflating, negative-growth economy is “strong.” He has also claimed there were no COVID-19 vaccinations prior to his inauguration, that Russian President Vladimir Putin – alternately, the oil companies, petroleum refiners, or Trump – was/were responsible for the exorbitant gasoline price increases Biden induced by canceling drilling and pipeline projects, and that America’s southern border is “closed.”

Frankly, Biden’s inability to construct a coherent sentence without a teleprompter makes it impossible for him to exploit a presidential “bully pulpit” as a “persuasion mechanism,” especially when, as it often does, the oversized teleprompter text escapes him.

Furthermore, no one is more responsible than Joe Biden for “The deep partisanship present not only in Congress but also in the electorate more broadly.”

In September, 2022, Joe Biden read, aloud, “Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic,” and, “MAGA Republicans have made their choice. They embrace anger. They thrive on chaos. They live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies.”

In that address, Biden accused more than 74 million American voters of being at least “semi-fascist” – or worse.

So much for unity…

To be fair, the presidency has always been a difficult job. Nonetheless, Mr. Biden’s problems are more easily explained:

Because of the office he holds, Joe Biden is a consequential man, but his petty, nasty partisanship, his pusillanimous foreign policy, his military blunders, his catastrophic domestic stewardship and his mismanagement of deficits, debt, regulation, and immigration, among other failures, confirm that he is not a competent one.

https://www.pottsmerc.com/2023/03/06/jerry-shenk-joe-biden-consequential-yes-competent-no/