It is far too soon for people to write off Joe Biden

[Arkansas Granny]

Put it down to a hyper-caffeinated media. A few weeks ago, Joe Biden’s presidency was widely hailed as a triumph. Coronavirus was in retreat. The US economy was roaring back. And Democrats looked on course to pass Biden’s ambitious economic bills by early autumn. Rash comparisons between Biden and Franklin Roosevelt were being bandied about. 

A few weeks of setbacks have changed everything. The rampaging Delta variant has dented consumer sentiment and created a bad jobs report. Forecasts of a Democratic defeat in the midterm elections next year are now commonplace, which would turn Biden into a lame duck. All of a sudden people are proclaiming Biden’s “failed presidency”. Others are chronicling “How Delta beat Biden”. 

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Biden’s biggest setback, however, was the botched nature of the Afghanistan withdrawal. The July 2 pullout from Bagram air base occurred in advance of his self-imposed deadline of August 31. But the way it happened undermined Biden’s reputation for competence, which was probably his most important quality in defeating Donald Trump. No amount of White House special pleading can alter the fact that America’s exit has damaged US interests. Since then Biden’s approval ratings have fallen by roughly six percentage points, which is steep. In terms of media narrative, his presidency is now in freefall. 


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Nothing that Biden faces yet compares with that. For all its flaws, the Afghanistan exit is still popular with the US public, though the president has personally taken a hit over its handling. The real test of his fortunes will come in the next few weeks when we find out whether he can push through his $1.2tn infrastructure bill and $3.5tn “American families plan”, both of which would have a big impact on working Americans. One of the reasons most Republicans oppose the first bill and are unanimously against the second is because they know how popular they would be. 

https://www.ft.com/content/117c7687-9354-4f45-8ddc-145cec24acb3

[Joinfortmill]

1. Media is wrong again. Joe has NOT lost his mojo.

He has a heart of gold and a spine of steel.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. Yes. It's hard for me to be critical of him when he is trying to clean up the mess left by TFG.

[onetexan]

19. Yup. Whenevwr i see headlines likethis one i just roll my eyes

As if the MSM is impartial.

[Me.]

4. "Botched"

Looks like there is a re-think about that now and the bringing out of people, including 200 Americans today who couldn't/wouldn't leave 6 months ago, is being recognized as a major achievement though some will keep whining about the messiness of it. On;y the Cons and those looking to 'dirty' him up will continue with the meme.

[Midnight Writer]

7. Yep, this article is typical of the "hyper-caffeinated" journalism it describes.

I truly am not seeing the "botched" part of the airlift.

It went better than I expected and I don't think any President could have done better.

[lagomorph777]

16. The war was botched. Joe's cleanup of the Bush/Trump disaster was not.

[onetexan]

20. +1 -K&R

[Walleye]

5. Joe is a pure of heart and believes in our abilities. That goes along way

[samnsara]

6. who is writing him off?? my gawd every day he does somethng that makes me SO grateful

..the he is the one in charge right now. I love him more each day...hes even won over Michael Moore. Joes on fire and some folks cant handle that. Now if we can just get rid of the OTHER joe!

[Beastly Boy]

8. "far too soon" implies it's only a matter of time.

Financial Times is full of shit. The only thing that's far too soon to determine is how highly Biden will be ranked among other US Presidents.

[snowybirdie]

9. Tell Brett Stephens

Latest rant was that Biden is a failed president! Lord I hate these fools.

[Polly Hennessey]

10. Writing him off? Delta variant? How is he responsible

for that? Afghanistan? People are already forgetting about that. Exactly, how was it botched? Stop with the stupid stuff. How about letting a very competent president do his job. Gee, he has been in office almost eight months and he hasn’t made the world a perfect place. Now if you want to talk about botching up a presidency look no further than TFG.

[Moebym]

11. The media is determined to depress Dem turnout in '22, aren't they?

They want to set up a self-fulfilling prophecy just so they can smugly proclaim, "we told you so".

My fear is that they have already succeeded in discouraging enough independents and low-info Dems to make a difference in '22.

[Harker]

12. It is far too soon to be suggesting that it's far too soon to be

writing off Joe Biden.

[PortTack]

13. Look at the link! Financial times....they don't like the infrastructure bill..of course they are

Going to print crap!!

[NNadir]

14. The same media that put an unqualified stupid racist in the White House...

...is now wringing its hand over what it calls a "botched" exit from an eternal war it also endorsed.

It would be interesting if they'd paid more attention to a botched effort to overthrow the US government and install an ignorant immoral (when not amoral) thug in the White House as dictator or an effort, largely successful to install outright misogynists on the Supreme Court, but their interest is not either in truth or patriotism or justice.

They'd rather destroy the future if it means sales.

[lees1975]

15. Who wrote this garbage?

The economy is still roaring, jobs report better than most of Trump's, 120,000 people out of Afghanistan and those who are left behind can't be blamed on Biden. 13 American casualties, unfortunate and costly, but a low number considering how rapidly the government and military dissolved.

This stuff coming out almost looks like these media people are trying to scare Democrats into voting in 2022.

The only poll on 538 today that shows Biden's approval "underwater" is Rasmussen. There's a September 4-5 R&W that has approval at +10, and the generic ballot is +6 Democrat. My prediction is that the Democrats expand majorities in both houses and after 2012, won't need Sinema or Manchin.

[BootinUp]

17. Fuck that narrative and the horse it came on

[Aristus]

18. Who the hell is writing off Joe Biden?

I think he's doing a fantastic job. It's not flashy, showy, or prime-time ready. It's just good, solid, smart, compassionate governing.

[FreepFryer]

21. Man they are trying to bury us in hopelessness. We must be winning. (Nt)