Biden has lost 2024
A president who has lost confidence in himself is a president the nation will not follow.
If Democrats could come up with a worst-case scenario heading into the 2022 campaign season, President Biden could hardly have delivered a more on-script disaster.
Let’s set Afghanistan aside for a moment. COVID-19 is surging, the Fed is throwing the last shovel of coal in the market boiler, “the great resignation” is signaling long-term inflation, the coming wave of evictions will lead to a wave of defaults. North Korea is restarting its Yongbon nuclear reactor, which had been dormant since 2018’s “love affair” between Kim Jong-il and Donald Trump.
The Senate agreed on a bi-partisan $3.5 trillion budget, and the House will surely hand a truckload of pork to the president’s desk for signature. Any hint of fiscal discipline or restraint has long gone out the door.
Now let’s look at Afghanistan. It’s an unmitigated disaster, as the last American flights fled in retreat, while we promise drone strikes on the terrorists who now multiply, plot and have safe haven in a Taliban-ruled nation. Even the Taliban’s enemies, such as ISIS-K, will have more status and power in this new tribal land, fully equipped by the United States government.
About that infographic. GAO data is based on contracts with the Afghan National Army (ANA). Some of those contracts that extended to 2023 have not been completely fulfilled, so not all of that gear might be in country. But most of it likely is. The SIGAR report numbers are much more accurate—and of course it’s easier to count aircraft than pistols. But without logistics, over time the capability will degrade.
Not all of the gear will end up with the Taliban; some of it surely “walked” to whatever local chieftain is building his own personal army. What is likely is that it will be used against us at some point, one way or another. Not very comforting.
Our allies are finding President Biden about as loyal as his predecessor, and are asking difficult questions.
Eight months into what was supposed to be a long, deep breath of fresh air, the BS has created such a stink in the Biden presidency that his approval rating is cratering. The Hill reported Monday:
Biden's approval rating has dipped below 50 among multiple polls since the Taliban overthrew the Afghan government, including a Hill-HarrisX poll conducted earlier in August that found he had a net approval rating of 49 percent. A USA Today-Suffolk University poll last week had Biden's approval rating even lower at 41 percent, with 55 percent disapproving of his job performance.
FiveThirtyEight’s analysis pegs the decline to more than just Afghanistan. Biden’s mishandling of the pandemic, poor messaging, and a general Jimmy Carter-1979 feeling of malaise seems to be afflicting the nation.
An early August survey by Gallup found that just 23 percent of Americans were satisfied with the way things were going in the United States, down from 36 percent in May. Meanwhile, Gallup also found that Americans once again view COVID-19 as the country’s most important problem after concerns had dipped in the spring and early summer. And as our presidential approval tracker of Biden’s response to the coronavirusshows, just 53 percent of Americans now approve of his handling of the pandemic.
As the last jet took off from Kabul, there is no sense of accomplishment. “U.S. OUT OF AFGHANISTAN” blared the newspaper headlines, but it was done on the Taliban’s timetable, acceding to an organization that swept through the country we spent 20 years building after defeating them militarily.
The repercussions of our humiliating exit have not even begun to ripple through American culture.
In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson realized he had lost both the Vietnam War, public support, and the presidency.
“I have concluded that I should not permit the presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year,” Johnson said. “With America’s sons in the fields far away, with America’s future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world’s hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes, or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office — the presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.”
This would be a great speech to hear coming from President Biden right now. I realize I’m being a pessimist here, that the optimists see recovery, opportunity, and competence. But I see a president looking at his watch while attending a solemn moment when our troops come home in flag-draped coffins. I’m certain Biden cares—he buried a military son. But I am also certain he knows this can’t be fixed, not with him in the Oval Office. President Biden has lost his self-confidence.
A president who has lost confidence in himself is a president the nation will not follow. In 2022, we will see a break in the Democrats, potentially where Biden is encouraged to distance himself, like Bill Clinton did in the 2000 election. We will see Republicans—if the GOP can break free of Cawthorn/MTG-infused Trumpism—take back the Senate, and probably the House.
Biden should not run in 2024. If there’s some kind of movement or effort that looks like a campaign, it will only be for show. Kind of like Trump’s faux campaign “Save America,” where the former guy is raising money that can be used for literally anything except a presidential campaign. My bet is that Trump won’t run in 2024, but he’ll want to play king-maker to whoever does.
Biden won’t even be a king-maker. That role has never been given up by the man who lives a scant mile from the White House: Barack Obama. Even Obama admitted he was “heartbroken” over the attacks in Kabul, which were the worst since he was in office. But Obama surged in Afghanistan while Biden exited.
The last American soldier leaving Afghanistan sealed 2024 for Joe Biden. He has lost any chance at another term.
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The epitaph on this Administration's tombstone, courtesy of Gen. McKenzie:
"We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out."
It'll be interesting to see who the Democrats can get off their bench for 2024.
I never expected a second term from Biden. I am glad to be done with the never ending war in Afganistan. Unfortunately, I believe Biden's election was the last gasp of our dying Democratic Republic. The lunatics have taken control of the Republican party and the illiterate of the 21st century have enabled them to do so. (The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn" ~ Alvin Toffler.)
I have watched as the Republican party has run its ground game, securing its stronghold from the bottom to top rungs of government in state after state. We are seeing the fulfillment of the grave concerns George Washington expressed in his farewell address
"Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.
This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another."