The headline is not really an exaggeration departed too far from the crux of a new CNN article detailing just how poorly President Biden has fared since taking office.
From gas prices to baby formula, both crises that continue festering or devolving, everything Biden touches seems to get worse before our eyes.
Friendly media outlets, like CNN, have started to turn sour on Biden’s presidency, often flashing warning signs such as the article that came out this morning which gives an all-too-real assessment of the Biden malaise and why it seems impossible to think he could run again in 2024.
As CNN notes, “America is on edge, and that’s bad news for the White House”:
If Americans are “really, really down,” as President Joe Biden suggests, it’s hardly surprising.
Many key aspects of economic, social and national life that were once viewed as smoothly running certainties are out of joint. The Covid-19 pandemic, though it has eased its deadly grip, has left a complicated legacy of challenges that are still disrupting daily life. Some are aggravations – like the more than 800 airline flights cancelled on Sunday. Others threaten Americans’ economic prospects and sense of safety and wellbeing, like the growing fears of a recession.
Such an atmosphere is sure to breed new turmoil in a nation seeing widening ideological divides ahead of midterm elections that are likely to cause more dysfunction if power is split in Washington between Republicans and Democrats.
Yes, there is general turmoil, but what about Biden specifically? The article goes on to state that the entire rationale for Biden running in 2020 — to be the “fixer” of the country — is now out the window:
It is debatable just how much Biden could do to improve the economy and all the troubles that are afflicting the country. But his professed rationale for his 2020 victory – that he was chosen by voters to fix problems – is crumbling. And while the White House has taken multiple steps to fix things – including expansive use of war-time powers under the Defense Production Act, the releases of millions of barrels of oil from national reserves and mounting emergency flights of baby formula from abroad – its efforts have not always been effective.
When it comes to inflation especially, the White House has presented an often confusing political message as officials oscillate between saying there’s not much more Biden can do to highlighting multiple plans to show that the President understands the pressure on Americans. But given the reality of rising gas prices, Biden is a tough political spot – unable to take credit for positive aspects of the recovery since many people are simply not feeling the strength of the economy in their lives.
The article tries to be as soft as possible while landing punches on Biden’s efforts to curtail some of the nation’s most pressing man-made problems.
The FDA knew about a potential baby formula disruption as early as February 2021 but did nothing until May of 2022 to try and get the nation’s largest formula manufacturing plant back open after a contamination issue.
Economists warned for months in the summer and fall of 2021 that inflation was going to eat the country alive, yet there were crickets from the White House calling it “transitory” and downplaying the problem at every opportunity. In other words, don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Gas prices immediately began rising months after Biden took the Oath of Office and started slashing oil production by killing pipelines and ending federal leases for drilling and exploration. The result was more predictable than a clock striking noon each day. America’s domestic energy market was crippled and more susceptible to international disruption. Enter the new normal of $5 per gallon for gasoline and over $100 to fill the average vehicle tank.
The vast majority of what ails the Biden administration was caused directly by the Biden administration. From inexperienced “check the box” cabinet officials, like Pete Buttigieg, to cocky and arrogant senior staff like Ron Klain, they’re all the “smartest people in the room” and they’re all morons because of it.
Now faced with reality every day, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admits the administration got it wrong on inflation and things will probably get worse before they get better:
The daunting reality for Democrats – and struggling Americans – is that things could get worse.
A combination of stubbornly high inflation and rising job losses in an economy slowing due to Federal Reserve action would be an even bigger political disaster for the White House. The administration already has limited credibility in talking about the economy after repeatedly downplaying the risks of risking inflation last year and insisting that it was a temporary phenomenon. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is one of the few officials to admit she got it wrong, as she did in a recent CNN interview. She insisted on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday that though inflation was “unacceptably high,” a recession was not inevitable. Brian Deese, the director of Biden’s National Economic Council, had a similar message on other Sunday talk shows.
Americans vote in just five months to decide which party controls Congress. Democrats, thanks to Biden, are on the losing end of every issue right now from the economy to foreign policy to immigration, there’s nothing that Biden has done right or managed to correct after the fact.
The Biden malaise will swallow Democrats in November, and everyone seems to know it except Biden himself.
