Joe Biden very well may be the worst president in generations…worse than Jimmy Carter, and I can already hear the sound of a thousand readers uttering simultaneously, “And that’s saying something!”
I’m not saying it’s not a close call, but one of the reasons we even remember how awful Carter was is that he had a notable presence. He made decisions. They were all wrong, but they were all his, and America knew that. He was a nice man with terrible governing skills, and he was probably far too nice to have ever made an effective President. When he left office, he stayed on America’s radar because he stayed active and useful. By now we’re all familiar with Carter’s Habitat for Humanity work. It is a legacy that far outlasted his presidential term.
Joe Biden is the un-present President…the confused Commander-in-Chief…the lost leader. It is hard to really even be mad at him. Biden doesn’t seem to be making choices, good or bad. He doesn’t give off an aura of authority, and we don’t see enough of him to think he’s just a really dumb leader making really dumb decisions.
This President simply isn’t there.
He is nowhere he needs to be when he needs to be there, it seems. He spends a disturbing amount of time in his Delaware home. At this point, it may be close to at least half his time spent at his personal compound. That’s just what we know about. My uninformed suspicion is that Mr. Biden spends quite a bit of unreported time at his personal compound.
When he is in D.C., he’s not really available to the public by way of the press. He’s not visiting the press pool. He’s not holding regular Q&A sessions like his predecessors. He’s not even courting the press, the way Obama did. There were many times Obama would buy food for the press corps, and he was known to visit the press corps compartment on Air Force One. There are many pictures of him laughing and joking around with the White House press pool. It was a constant source of annoyance for conservative voters and Republican politicians.
Now that I’ve seen Biden in inaction, it makes me miss Obama’s incessant sucking up. At least we knew where he was and what he was saying and doing.
Even when he is physically present, it is not always clear that he is mentally present. While he managed to stay alert and aware through his entire State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, that is a rare occurrence. By now, the American people have been treated to video after video of POTUS sounding confused, forgetting the names of people he’s known for years, forgetting who he is celebrating or introducing, even forgetting that someone he was supposed to be eulogizing is dead. The video of him standing on a stage at the front of Raphael Warnock’s church as the choir leads the congregation in an MLK Day celebration is cringe-inducing sadness at its worst. Biden looks confused, lost, as if he’d just gained consciousness and wasn’t really sure how he ended up on that stage or even exactly why he was there. Even Warnock looks troubled, keeping a distance from the President, not even looking at him, not smiling, not proud to be hosting the President of the United States. He looks like a man driving past a cemetery late at night with the windows down.
In other moments, Biden has wandered away from podiums at which he is speaking, clearly unsure of where to go. Even the Easter Bunny had to help him find the proper direction.
He tells contradicting stories, sometimes outright lies. He seems to have an entire alternate universe floating around in his brain, from which he plucks pretend scenarios and bizarre fantasies to share at the oddest moments.
President Biden is not there in the sense of governing, either. Last week, a Chinese spy balloon took a casual, leisurely trip across the entire continental United States with nary a whisper from the President himself. By the time the Pentagon and White House came to any kind of strategy to deal with the incursion of our air space, the balloon had completed its mission. We have no way of knowing what kind of information the Chinese were able to glean from that little stunt. Biden hasn’t offered any assurance or explanation. He didn’t even bother to mention it in his speech last Tuesday, even just to pretend he was being a “tough guy” about it. It was as non-existent as his leadership.
When we see the President walk, it is the frail gait of an ill, old man. That may seem harsh, but that is the reality. It looks as though each step is pained and unsure. He walks like a child just learning how to put one foot in front of the other. God-willing, we’ll all be in that same position one day, carefully measuring our steps and squinting our eyes and groaning every time we stand up from the sitting position. But that’s fine, because in all likelihood not one of us (or maybe one single person reading this, who knows?) will ever be the leader of the free world. We won’t need to be seen as strong and alert.
Biden isn’t seen as strong or alert. He’s barely seen at all. Even his State of the Union speech was cobbled together from half-truths, outright lies, and better speeches from better men before him. Even his formal presence in congressional chambers felt more like the ghost of a hallowed office than the actual man who occupies the office.
Joe Biden just simply isn’t there. Whomever is pulling the levers of this country, it is not the Commander-in-Chief. That much is certain.
And while right now his presidency feels awful and dangerous, it seems to me that once Biden is gone, he will be easily forgotten by history. He will join the list of weak and unpopular presidents we never talk about anymore, and most Americans aren’t even aware ever existed.
Joe Biden will not be a Jimmy Carter. He should be so lucky.
He will be a Millard Fillmore.