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Clearly, Joe Biden's Sinking Presidency Can't Be His Fault. Get Some New Faces

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Americans on the whole are not dumb about public affairs. We’re not always attentive or wise. And certainly not quick. But over time, we figure things and people out in our nation’s political life. For better or worse.

And Americans on the whole have figured out, just 37 percent of the way through his first and last term, that the presidency of Joe Biden is an utter disaster by any measure.

Unless you measure success by vast amounts of money spent.

Like the president, who got elected because he was not someone else, this administration is slow, unresponsive, angered by dissent, and driven by stubborn belief in and adherence to an alien agenda that is extreme and far beyond the political reach of its slim congressional control or the consensus it earned in the 2020 election.

Being commander in chief also appears beyond the mental capabilities of its leader and his hand-picked vice-presidential partner who plays no noticeable role of consequence. Fortunately.

Biden has decided, or been told he decided, that the problem for him is not the widespread dislike of his broadly destructive economic and energy policies, his ineptitude, or his verbal and mental clumsiness as commander in chief who can’t remember the name of the five-sided building that headquarters our military.

Or the man he put in charge there.

The problem, Biden claims, is that Americans have not been told enough about his many successes,

As a chronic career-long senator, he sees these as assembling sufficient votes mainly from his own Democrat party to pass arcane legislation to spend trillions of dollars we do not have, on grandiose projects he promised in the eager heat of his basement political campaign.

This, he assured, would not ignite a painful invisible inflation tax on every American, even the suckers who fell for him. And when it did, the inflation would evaporate quickly. And when it didn’t evaporate quickly, that became the Federal Reserve’s job to fix.

Not Biden’s fault, like the inability to convince the record high nearly two-thirds of Americans who now disapprove of his job performance.

Anyone who’s ever worked in politics or government, as I have both, knows intimately that a failure to communicate with the public is never a boss’ fault. That falls on those assigned to deftly communicate an administration’s accomplishments and messages, even if they’re total crap.

It is, honestly, quite tricky for press secretaries to earn and maintain some trust and working relationships with political and governmental professionals on the inside, who want only good news to appear, and working media, who are often hostile, lazy, and sloppy in their eternal quest for conflict, even if’s not where they’re looking.

Not playing the violins here. But crossfire is just an occupational hazard with no workers comp.

Because Joe Biden’s sinking administration and political outlook can obviously not be his fault, recent published reports say his aides are now planning a wholesale restructuring of the White House communications operation. And they’re in a big hurry.

That’s because the midterm elections that currently threaten to paralyze his agenda are just 14 weeks away. And Biden thinks, or has been told he thinks, that new people (not including him) can somehow alter the impression of his bumbling presidency seared into a worried public’s mind for the last 79 weeks.

This includes but is not limited to:

  • a never-ending COVID crisis that Biden pronounced gone a year ago.
  • A serious supply-chain crisis that two photo ops did not alleviate.
  • A baby-food crisis he missed for two months, then tried to solve by seeking baby formula from other countries.
  • A self-inflicted energy crisis, with unbelievable gas prices adding to inflation pressures that hurt everyone except the Big Guy.
  • That deadly and badly-botched Afghan troop withdrawal when Biden, who has no military experience, willfully rejected the strategy and plans of professional soldiers whose names he can’t remember.

So, aides are interviewing for a new Director of Communications and deputy press secretary. In mid-May, Jen Psaki left the press secretary job to go where most White House spokespeople go, into a TV job explaining their president for a lot more money. It was portrayed as a normal departure and not tied to Biden’s fading poll numbers.

Biden’s new press secretary, who’s supposed to be explaining administration policy and answering media questions, is Karine Jean-Pierre, a native of Martinique who is married to Suzanne Malveaux, a CNN reporter, who could give her many tips.

Malcolm on the Right
Townhall Media

 

Jean-Pierre, like Kamala Harris, was not chosen for her intelligence, media savvy, or skills in addressing carefully-crafted questions designed to provoke news. She simply checks all the boxes of a PC administration that ignores competence and holds diversity as its supreme goal, though she did not receive the same job perks as Psaki.

Jean-Pierre matches this Biden administration perfectly.

She is completely inept as a skilled spokeswoman, unaware of what the president was doing, unable to explain simple things about the activities of Biden and Harris, needing to consult a briefing book to find a script to read on most topics, and posting a video boasting of lowered gas prices without noting they still remain $2 a gallon higher than when Biden took office.

That fits with a president whose willful misstatements are chronic, like claiming employment numbers are for new jobs when they’re really just refilling pandemic vacancies.

But Washington media has yet to find the time to compile daily running totals of Biden’s lies and distortions, as they did so conscientiously for the previous president from the other party.

This week should be a challenge for Jean-Pierre to explain. Already out are new Gallup numbers showing Americans have lost confidence in most major government institutions, not just personalities.

Also coming out are an armed battalion of new government reports, most likely with more adverse economic news.

We will get a first reading of the second quarter’s economic growth, or lack thereof. We’ll get new numbers on consumer price inflation that has been running around nine percent year-over-year, worst since the 13 percent inflation that helped sink Jimmy Carter’s reelection hopes.

The Federal Reserve will likely increase interest rates three-quarters of a point again on Tuesday, and Wednesday, the chairman will answer media questions, probably focused on the increasing risk of a recession.

And then the monthly Consumer Confidence Survey that examines consumer intentions and expectations on purchases, vacations, interest rates, and economic growth. Confidence has fallen for the past two months to the lowest level since Biden took office.

Nothing has happened to change that, though the White House did offer the encouraging news that their boss was busy working upstairs and had cleaned his dinner plate, like a good boy.

Given recent patterns, none of these indicators are likely to be good news. Biden’s COVID diagnosis, despite four vaccinations, will thankfully keep him from more embarrassing public missteps.

Given recent performances, Jean-Pierre will have inadequate answers and obvious dodges for reporters’ queries on these economics. But with this administration, that’s clearly somebody else’s fault.

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