OK, maybe citing Joe Biden in the headline is a bit misleading. Our intrepid, totally qualified, and not at all senile president is still nowhere to be found (at least publicly) following Vladimir Putin’s big move yesterday. Yet, Biden’s handlers are out in force, doing their best to sugarcoat the fact that the administration just got completely punked by Russia.

If you’ve been asleep the last 18 hours or so, the short version of things is that Putin recognized the separatist-controlled regions of Eastern Ukraine as autonomous, giving the Russian leader a pretext to go ahead and invade Ukraine while claiming it’s not an invasion of Ukraine. One must admit it’s a cunning move. The goal all along was to take another bite at the apple, and Putin was able to do that while setting up a situation where he can claim to be the victim of aggression if the West responds.

Meanwhile, the White House’s response has been one of pure chaos. Despite “predicting” an invasion for almost a month, including putting down a redline that included any Russian troops crossing the border, Biden and his cohorts are now scrambling to move the goalposts by arguing what the definition of an invasion is.

SAO: "Russian troops moving into Donbas would not itself be a new step. Russia has had forces in the Donbas for the past 8 years." But the SAO did say there will be additional sanctions imposed tomorrow.

— Ali Rogin (@AliRogin) February 21, 2022

There is some truth to the fact that Russian-backed elements have been in the Donbas region for almost a decade at this point. As one of my RedState colleagues shared in a dressing down of the Biden administration’s fecklessness and incompetence, the now more formal invasion by Russia is just a reinforcing of the status quo enabled by the Obama administration.

To that extent, perhaps you could argue it’s not a move worthy of a forceful response. Still, no one made Biden set the redline he did, and few are actually arguing for military action. I’m certainly not doing so, as I believe any such move would fall on the shoulders of the Europeans first and foremost.

But let’s be clear, this is an invasion, even if it’s one couched in a fairly brilliant strategic and diplomatic move (Putin is a lot of things, dumb is not one of them). Just because some in the separatist regions speak Russian does not make their lands the rightful property of Russia. The former Soviet Union forced their language on their subjects, so the border regions (including those of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, etc.) having Russian speakers is not surprising in the least nor is it an excuse for annexation.

Regardless, in the face of this invasion, Biden has no answer. Instead of immediately putting in place the sanctions promised, he and his handlers are making excuses to keep holding back. Why not make that move? What does Putin have on Biden? In fact, if the White House was serious about peacefully defusing this situation and stopping Russia in its tracks, all they’d have to do is go gangbusters on domestic energy production via new leases and green-lighting every pipeline that has been blocked. That would neuter Putin and take away his one bit of financial leverage.

That won’t happen, though, because Biden is a weak, incompetent man who is being dictated to. Thus, Putin will win this bout just as he’s won previous bouts with the United States. Taiwan should probably prepare for what’s coming.