Come home, Joe! Well, to be fair, according to Newsweek, Biden decided to cut short his Camp David vacation and return to Washington – hey, it’s only two days late! Well, technically, two days after ‘resuming’ his vacation – seriously, who can keep up with Joe’s nap schedule, anyway?
It’s been an impressive eight months of screw ups – to that point that even the normally docile CNN is biting at Hiden’s heels. The only policy of Trump’s that Biden didn’t rescind is the Afghan withdrawal – but he did delay it and mucked up the years of planning so that what was unlikely to be a great ending as envisioned in Trump’s withdrawal has become an out and out tragedy in Biden’s.
Barely eight months in and the Biden administration is collapsing with crisis’ on just about every front. Inflation, sky rocketing gas prices (thanks to a certain pipeline closure) and millions trying to cross the southern border at home; Russia, China and the insane withdrawal from Afghanistan abroad – Dang, even Carter didn’t do this bad this quickly!
Well. that’s the story. Is it the reality? Biden’s inability to hold coherent press conferences and to work without ‘vacation’ (he was on his third since January) along with a growing list of ‘gaffs’ make it perfectly plain that his mental capability is in decline. He has good days – and bad -and evidently very bad days when the WH staff is desperate to keep him out of the public eye.
No one in DC thought a presidential vacation was going to look anything but bad – let alone once things went south in Afghanistan – but Biden didn’t immediately return and hasn’t made a public statement. Biden in his prime was never a great policy wonk, but he was a capable politician – hence being in Congress for decades. If he has his faculties, he knows better than this – he would have understood the optics at the very least. Yet he still hasn’t come out when he should know he needs to – and the reason why is increasingly obvious.
So we’re left with the real question that no one wants to voice – who the heck is calling the shots?
Harris?
If Biden can’t even be trusted in front of a camera, who exactly is making decisions right now? Harris? I’m doubtful – Biden’s camp has been trying to keep her at arms length. But the bungled withdrawal could be her handiwork – competence in office is not something she’s known for and being fairer, she isn’t known for her foreign policy prowess, either.
Personally, based on how the two camps are acting, I think Biden selected Harris – or rather whoever ‘helped’ Biden selected Harris – simply to keep Biden in office. She didn’t win a single primary – dropped out early because her campaign imploded so badly. Her performance in office is on par with her abysmal performance as a prosecutor – no one wants her as president, least of all her own party. Having her as second seat ensures that Pelosi won’t get itchy trigger fingers with the 25th Amendment – at least that was probably the logic.
Well, if not Harris, maybe Pelosi?
Okay, I can’t even do that one with a straight face. No one in Biden’s camp wants Pelosi in their hair – she can’t even deliver legislation that can get to Biden’s desk – and that is reflecting poorly on Biden as well – no, she’s not likely to be in good with the Inner Circle.
So, is it Jill Biden, in shades of Florence Harding?
Probably in part – she is most definitely her husband’s fiercest protector and it would be no surprise if she were influencing policy as she could easily become politically deadly to anyone who crossed her – and that’s not a dig at her. She has the most influence on her husband as his increasingly obvious primary caretaker so it’s not a matter of her being diabolical – she’s under tremendous stress. That happens anytime a loved one goes into decline but it’s even worse when that loved one is supposed to run the most powerful nation on Earth. If you were a WH staffer, would you want her snapping at you even in exhaustion, knowing she could ‘suggest’ your ouster and you’d be gone? Jill Biden is not to be trifled with if you are part of her husband’s staff, not in the least.
But there’s another, better candidate, Chief of Staff Ron Klain.
Klain has served twice as VP CoS (Gore and Biden) and is no stranger to the workings of the White House. A CoS isn’t necessarily a great policy asset – and let’s be clear, it’s not normally his job. The CoS keeps the Cabinet running smoothly – a lot like herding cats only less rational. That’s not the same as Foreign Policy Advisor – or ANY policy advisor. But it does place Klain right where he’d need to be if he were calling the shots instead of his boss.
The final possibility is that no one is really calling the shots. From the sheer incompetence of this administration, this seems the most likely possibility where policy is itself being enacted. Where political gamesmanship is being done, that’s going to probably be the WH staff, likely the CoS Klain.
Whoever is in charge, it’s to the point that White House press conferences look like a clown car full of fireclowns trying to put out a building fire with cream pies.. Policy – the stuff we pay a president to do – is now just tragic.
