President Joseph Biden finally went to the troubled southern border on Thursday.
Did you expect anything to improve?
New polls show that the more than nine million illegal immigrants allowed into the country by Biden’s policies have surged to become Americans’ top concern in this election year, up eight points in just the last month.
For scale, that means Joe Biden has admitted into the nation, without documentation or tracking, more illegal immigrants than the combined populations of Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, and San Antonio. He's done nothing to stem the flood and, in fact, has transported many to blend into inland cities.
No wonder it's the top worry since the nation’s communities (and taxpayers) will be suffering for decades under the social, educational, financial, and law enforcement weight of Biden’s willful actions and in-actions.
So, this shallow, duplicitous man did what he always does when confronted with a serious political problem: He staged an expensive photo op, so useless that even the Border Patrol union mocked it.
For 19 minutes, the 81-year-old shuffled along a dirt path with a few border officials, walking stiffly with no arm movements or holding both arms out in case of a fall.
His family clearly doesn’t care, but Biden looked totally lost and confused. “Where am I?” he asked at one point. At another spot on the trail, he felt the need to salute something.
By design, his handlers took Biden to a quiet part of the open border where, early in his tenure, he erased his predecessor’s Remain in Mexico policies that had stabilized the illicit influx.
As usual, Biden’s photo op was an empty exercise. He never takes responsibility. He’s trying to blame Republicans for the mess of illegals he created. His administration now calls them “newcomers.”
“It’s time for action,” Biden blurted Thursday.
He exchanged limp handshakes. He asked questions from notecards. He announced nothing new.
Perhaps he’s saving that for this Thursday evening’s State of the Union Address, where he’ll pretend to take bold action on the border mess he created and some other areas he thinks will help him come November.
That’s what State of the Union addresses have become: pretend actions, few of which ever become reality.
It’s roughly a 12-hour round-trip flight between Washington and Brownsville, Texas. So that’s about three million taxpayer dollars out the back of Air Force One’s four mammoth engines to enhance global warming.
I expect the TV audience for his Thursday State of the Union remarks will be larger than last year’s 27 million. Not because anyone particularly cares what the Big Guy is going to say.
Biden continues to sink in polls, most importantly in key swing states. Most everyone wants to see if Joe Biden can actually spit out a complete speech without incoherent mumbles, extraneous eccentricities, and disturbing brainstorms in the mind of the man who controls the nuclear launch codes.
No photo op can cure that embedded image.
Just the other day, Biden announced he had ordered relief supplies air-dropped into Ukraine. He meant Gaza. But, hey, both have wars. So, what’s the difference, right?
After a physical exam last week — but not a cognitive test — Biden’s doctor reported the president is “a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male.” Dr. Kevin O’Connor also added, rather cryptically, that the president’s health exam revealed “no new concerns.”
With media watchdogs turned into lapdogs, Americans are left to hope that someday the alleged leader of the free world doesn’t get confused ordering a lunch or a launch.
Gallup says Biden’s job approval has dropped to 38 percent, just one point above his all-time low.
The RealClearPolitics average shows Biden’s job approval underwater on seven major issues, from Immigration (31 percent approve, 65 disapprove) and Foreign Policy (37-59) to Inflation (37-61) and the Economy (40-57).
And that does not factor in what I believe is another willfully dangerous Biden action: draining our Strategic Petroleum Reserve of nearly 200 million barrels of oil for midterm political benefit, then slow-walking his "promise" to refill it.
Mitch McConnell, the GOP Senate Minority Leader who turned 82 last month, experienced a couple of such brain freezes last year. He announced last week he would relinquish his party leadership post after November’s election.
But there’s no talk – yet – of Biden voluntarily abandoning his second-term bid with his vacuous vice president that would keep them pretending to preside until 2029, when he’d be 86.
If anyone needed any evidence that this outrageous Biden family ambition is only about clinging to power to reap the rewards of international influence and not about what’s best for the country, this is Exhibit A.
Democrats cling to the dream that the antipathy toward Donald Trump that boosted Biden in 2020 sufficiently endures this cycle and that the former president fuels it with over-the-top rhetoric. Or they hope one of their lawfare plots against Trump will save their political behinds on Nov. 8.
But they need to be careful with Biden's lies and spoken silliness.
They may be right. But Trump’s campaign is definitely much more focused and professionally run this time. When the former president launched the country’s longest presidential campaign 16 months ago, we wrote that he’d have to earn the nomination.
He’s done just that, sweeping all the contests so far.
His simultaneous all-day border visit Thursday was a masterpiece of advance work, much like an incumbent president’s team.
While Biden is pictured biting an ice cream cone, Trump met sympathetically with border agents in Eagle Pass, a hot area of illegal invasion. He asked pertinent questions without notes and met with affected border residents to listen and speak coherently and forcefully.
Donald Trump, however, remains the same. His fiercely loyal and protective supporters are always fiercely loyal and protective despite (or perhaps because of) his many legal troubles.
However, they are a fraction of the voters necessary to win the Electoral College. Currently, Trump is on track to clinch the GOP nomination later this month. But even if the 77-year-old received every single Republican ballot in November, he’d still come up short.
In Iowa, Trump needs to remember that 49 percent of caucus-goers did not vote for him. And they're in his own party. In New Hampshire, 46 percent, and in South Carolina, 40 percent. He will need to convert those people come November.
Biden, who’s also running as an incumbent, got 96 percent in South Carolina.
Virtually assured of the nomination as of today, Trump could pivot to a general election strategy right now to broaden his appeal to independents, uncertain Republicans, suburban women, and Democrats wisely worried about Biden’s mental and physical condition.
But instead, Trump, who’s married to an immigrant, is still bashing Nikki Haley for her immigrant family. He’s mocking her Indian birth name (Nimarata) and making fun of her absent husband, Michael Haley, an Army Major who is currently deployed in Africa.
Haley remains his sole remaining party rival. But by extension, he’s also attacking her moderate Republican supporters and others who’ve given her 30 percent to 40 percent of primary votes. South Carolina exit polls found around 20 percent of GOP voters said they would not cast a Trump ballot in November.
“I’m an accountant,” Haley said. “I know 40 percent is not 50 percent. But I also know 40 percent is not some tiny group.”
Even if you don’t like or trust them, that’s stupid politics for Trump and the kind of pointless punching that alienated millions and seriously wounded him four years ago.
A poised Haley told reporters last week:
Instead of asking me what states I’m gonna win, why don’t we ask how (Trump) is going to win a general election after spending a full year in a courtroom?
Thursday’s State of the Union will be Biden's best opportunity this year to display his strengths and/or weaknesses. You can’t reverse aging, and the image of feeble Biden is pretty well embedded now.
But with enough medicinal help, he could appear at least competent, which media will hail. Or he could self-destruct before the largest audience he’ll have. And media will downplay that.
For the first time since 1972, I don’t see any presidential debates this fall. Biden’s fearful handlers severely limit his exposure to unrehearsed media encounters. And Trump ducking every one of the GOP’s primary debates hands the president a perfect excuse.
Constitutionally, presidents are required to report annually to Congress on the state of the nation. George Washington gave the first report in person on Jan. 8, 1790. It was the best SOTU ever, since, at 1,089 words, it was the shortest.
But for more than a century, starting with Thomas Jefferson, most presidents fulfilled that obligation with a written report. Then, in 1913, came Woodrow Wilson, a former college professor who liked to lecture. Ever since, it’s been done in person.
Once radio arrived in 1923, TV in 1947, and a primetime slot in 1965, no politician has passed on the exposure. The opposition got its chance to respond starting in 1966.
I’m betting Biden will discard his failed Bidenomics line. He will boast of declining inflation growth, althougth inflated prices sure have not declined. Fentanyl is an easy target to attack. Putin also.
He’ll probably complain that Republicans blocked his early immigration plan, but will skip mention that he erased Trump’s existing alien controls.
Likewise, he won’t find time to boast about killing energy independence or the botched Afghan exit. Never mind the Chinese spy balloon he allowed to traverse the country. Or the U.S. drone downed by Russia with no Biden response.
Americans surveyed by Gallup have given weak support in their own State of the Nation report, finding satisfaction has declined in more areas than it’s improved, with especially deep drops in immigration and military readiness.
Last year, Biden spoke for 73 minutes of optimism and jokiness.
He boasted, among other things, that gasoline prices were down $1.50 from their peak when he killed energy independence. He forgot to mention, however, that they remained $1.24 higher than the month he entered office.
That’s the sort of claim that State of the Union listeners need to beware of. Things that sound too good to be true probably aren’t. Given Biden's propensity for disastrous podium moments and lying, aides would be smart to make this a short speech.
Bottom line, Joe Biden could talk twice as long as Bill Clinton’s modern SOTU record of 89 minutes, and I doubt he’d convince many people that the state of our union in his presidency is good.