Ahead of the President’s visit to Pennsylvania this week, CNN did some investigating in the field by, um, actually speaking to voters in person. This is not something media outlets like CNN enjoy doing since it forces them out of their urban comfort zones and into flyover country.
What they found was a collection of voters and local officials, even those supportive of Biden, sick and tired of ongoing crises being mismanaged week to week. While people like Biden generally, in a “nice guy” kind of way, they think he’s weak and stuck on touting his past accomplishments rather than actually doing something about the challenges facing the country right now.
The theme from voters is exhaustion with the ongoing Covid situation and a White House that can’t get out of its own way:
Here in Pennsylvania, where the President is visiting Friday on the first stop of his pledge to spend more time away from the White House, conversations with voters suggest an overall sense of exhaustion as the pandemic approaches its third year and still casts a shadow over so much of American life.
“The fact of the matter is, I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” said Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, talking bluntly about inflation. “People have seen increases in their wages, but we know that those increases of wages have not kept up with a higher price of goods. And so our job is to do everything within our power to bring down costs.”
Wild, who represents the 7th Congressional District here and is facing her own midterm election battle, knows the mood of many voters is still uneasy. She is quick to air her own frustration with her party and believes Congress must act swiftly on enacting other parts of the Biden agenda, many of which have been overshadowed by fights over legislative process.
“Let’s not just keep knocking our heads against the wall and, you know, trying to pass a massive bill, if what we can get done are smaller bills that will really make a difference in people’s lives,” Wild said, pointing to lowering the cost of prescription drugs, including insulin.
Democrats are irritated that Biden is who he is: a forty-year creature of the DC swamp. His list of accomplishments is mainly from his prior years in office, and it was sparse then.
Everyone CNN spoke with leaned Democrat in one way or another, and they all attempt to spin Biden’s failure in their own way. “It’s not just his fault,” “He’s too soft-spoken,” “He needs to tout his successes more, ” etc…
The fact of the matter is Biden seems to be an empty vessel that was filled with the hopes and dreams of progressives in his party wishing to inflict the maximum amount of socialist change on the country. Never let a good crisis good to waste, said one prominent Obama advisor, and it seems that was the goal for Biden’s first year. Go pedal to the floor pushing legislation no one asked for, and gamble that if it passes, everything will be great.
Except, it failed, and Biden has nothing accomplished for year one of his presidency. His voters are tired because they’re disappointed. For some reason, they believed the lies about how competent and experienced he was.
Nothing Biden promised has come true, quite the opposite actually. Perhaps his biggest failure, aside from Afghanistan, will be the Covid-19 handling he promised to improve. Democrats strolled around under the false belief that Trump was the most incompetent moron on the face of the planet, surely Biden would be years ahead in his competent Covid management. Again, quite the opposite has been true. How are those free and available rapid tests coming along?
When reporters venture outside the DC beltway, they find the voters causing Biden’s approval rating to nosedive. The ones who plainly speak about why he failed, and what they think he should be doing differently.
This morning, a bridge collapsed in Pittsburgh ahead of Biden’s visit. The situation seems to reflect the direction his presidency, and the country, under his leadership, is headed.
Build Back Better!
Pittsburgh bridge collapse leaves 10 injured ahead of Biden's visit https://t.co/p2bViP1i9G #FoxNews
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) January 28, 2022
Instead, with no course correction in sight, Biden will meander on for the next year with little to show for his lofty promises.
