Adherents of American Civil War history and the battle of Gettysburg understand the dilemma that senile president Joe Biden faces right now.
The embattled second-year president is set to deliver his first State of the Union address (last year’s speech was called an “Address to a Joint Session of Congress” in April) in less than a week and the “enemy”, i.e. his political opponents, appears strong just about everywhere on the battle line. His agenda stalled with little hope of a breakout anytime in the foreseeable future, senile Joe might be ready to try something desperate like going straight at his naysayers, just like Confederate commander Robert E. Lee did in July of 1863. At Gettysburg, on July 3rd, Lee reasoned that the center of the Union line could be weak. Why? Because the southerners had already waged massive attacks on both of the enemy’s flanks the previous day with little success. The Yankees had pulled back at some parts of their makeshift fortifications but held firm. Union General George Meade possessed the slightly elevated ground in the middle. Lee thought his adversary had been destabilized to the point where a determined assault on the center would get the northerners to break. We all know what happened next. During the infamous “Pickett’s Charge”, the gritty veterans of the Confederate force marched gallantly across nearly a mile of open field, eventually reaching the point they were aiming for, but couldn’t take advantage of the brief gap. No reinforcements came. The southern army’s high-water mark was set. Never again would the Confederates be strong enough to mount another largescale offensive campaign. Does this describe Biden in our contemporary times? He’s tried attacking the Republicans on both flanks and was repulsed thanks to assistance from a couple of Biden’s own party members. He’s tried being diplomatic (well, not really, but it works here). He’s tried calling GOPers racists and obstructionists (that’s more like it). None of his confrontations have borne fruit. Biden’s approval ratings dropped dramatically since the middle of last year and are only getting worse. Will the old coot get desperate and try to find a weak point like Lee did at Gettysburg?
In a piece titled “How low can Biden go?”, Joseph Curl wrote at The Washington Times:
“The new CIVIQS poll, which surveyed 165,786 Americans, showed the president’s approval rating at just 34%. His disapproval rating stands at 57%, while 9% are apparently asleep, saying they neither approve nor disapprove. Wait, it gets worse. Mr. Biden’s approval is below 43% in a whopping 46 states — and in West Virginia, whose moderate Democrat senator, Joe Manchin, has repeatedly clashed with the president — he stands at just 16%. Nearly 80% of West Virginians disapprove of his job in office so far.
“What’s more, Mr. Biden’s approval rating is in the 30s in several swing states, including Florida, Arizona and Georgia. And he’s at just 23% with independents nationwide, a voting bloc that helped put him into the White House. Mr. Biden’s approval rating is above his disapproval rating in just four states, Vermont, Hawaii, Maryland and Massachusetts. And in the Swing states of Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — all of which voted blue in the 2020 election — the new poll shows voters’ approval of Biden in the low 30s…
“[T]here’s still room for Mr. Biden to sink further into the muck. Perhaps by Election Day 2024, he can get down to a 0% approval rating — and all he’s gotta do is just keep doing what he‘s doing.”
Ouch. Just like Robert E. Lee on that fateful Gettysburg July day nearly 159 years ago, no matter where senile Joe looks on the horizon, he sees big proverbial disapproval numbers (guns?) pointed at him. He may not have a choice but to try a drastic new strategy (attack the center of the line) to improve his standing with the public because what he’s been doing just ain’t cutting it.
Senile Joe concocted his 2020 tactics on the belief that Americans were so tired of Donald Trump’s tweets and blunt feuding with the fake news media that he personally didn’t have to campaign much at all, all the while issuing assurance after assurance that he could do better on the COVID pandemic than his predecessor did while restoring the “soul of the nation” that Republicans removed from a protected bunker somewhere in Washington and handed over to the white supremacists at Charlottesville. Or was “the soul” really in Delaware where Joe was?
The half-century swamp dweller spun electoral gold in telling whopper after whopper for all those years in Congress, so why wouldn’t it work again for the top job? Heck, even being exposed as a proven plagiarist and full-of-crap blowhard didn’t bring him permanently down. Joe made a career out of coming across as a lovable (not!) buffoon, a principle-free political used car salesman who spoke out of both sides of his mouth and spouted tired platitudes that didn’t mean anything. As his old buddy the Big O was fond of mentioning, “Lunch Bucket Joe” had never lost an election. The six-term senator and two-term Obama veep must’ve figured he had the magic touch. The people loved him! He is such a great guy! Knowing Biden, he still likely rises every morning with a smile on his face and a sunny but senile belief that everyone loves him, but only the fact that his reelection effort is still two years away provides him any relief whatsoever. Deep in the recesses of his mind, if Joe still actually thinks about anything anymore, he likely comforts himself with the notion that he can simply declare his retirement and live out his former president days at his beach house in Delaware.
But such a surrender might involve Joe admitting he was wrong on things and that his putrid policies didn’t work despite his eagerness for them to do so. At Gettysburg, General Lee was counseled after the first two days of battling to a bloody stalemate that it would be more prudent for his army to withdraw, redeploy and remain intact to fight another day. He didn’t. Lee put faith in the invincibility of his men, a tragic miscalculation that left just under half of them as casualties (killed, wounded and missing) in Pennsylvania.
Similarly, Joe Biden won’t retreat in his talk to Congress and the nation next week. With Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Joe’s gal pal veep Kamala Harris seated behind him, Biden will summons the usual hutzpah, and with his allotted dosage of Red Bull coursing through his veins, will declare the state of the union strong and proceed to make the case for why everything is hunky-dory and his administration is responsible for the rosy outlook.
He won’t paper over all of the nation’s problems, but expect to hear “My administration inherited” a lot in his hour-plus long talk. Democrat attendees will probably receive the applause lines ahead of time and be instructed to rise from their seats, point at the Republicans and hoot loudly in their direction. Dr. Jill will be seated in the upper gallery and beam brilliantly when her hubby heaps praise on education and the greatness of teachers. Blah, blah, blah. Unlike last year, the House chamber will be filled to capacity, with many of the Democrats continuing to wear masks to maintain the party’s ruse of “caring about people” and doing everything humanly possible to stop the spread of a virus that’s already been around the world a hundred times and likely infected all those who were going to get it anyway. (Note: Democrats are requiring an N95 mask and a negative COVID test to attend the SOTU address. No joke. I wonder if they’ll take more of a “Super Bowl -- look the other way” approach to the mask wearing, however. Can’t you just see the Capitol Police/Praetorian Guard escorting out Republicans who refuse to go along with it?) What Joe won’t do is assuage the people in the survey Curl discussed above.
Biden will double down on the aspects of the Democrat agenda that haven’t passed the Congress, namely, just about everything. Have you ever noticed how there’ve been precious few signing ceremonies with senile Joe as president?
There was the big one outside of Congress when the liberals pushed the COVID “relief” package through on a party-line vote. Then there was the sham bipartisan “infrastructure” bill that defeated a filibuster and passed the House under assurances from Pelosi that the welfare bloated “Build Back Better” nonsense would get a vote. Biden was in his glory the day the “infrastructure” legislation was signed. Democrats love money, don’t they?
Every president uses the SOTU address as his own personal wish-list, and Biden will be no different this year. Whereas in past years the president’s agenda enjoyed at least some chance of being passed, Biden’s wishes will be completely ignored by the current Congress. Democrats don’t want to be associated with him, and Republicans, outside of Liz Cheney, aren’t inclined to cooperate.
Senile Joe’s abysmal polling numbers make him toxic to everyone. Will he realize it?
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