From: mdsohug40@gmail.com   
      
   On Friday, 24 December 2021 at 18:55:03 UTC+6, Screw Your Three Shots wrote:   
   > Back in July, CNN polling expert Harry Enten noticed something    
   > remarkable: President Biden’s job approval rating hadn’t budged    
   > during his first six months in office. This was good news for    
   > the White House. Unlike his predecessor, who never cracked 50    
   > percent approval in a major poll conducted during his    
   > presidency, Biden was somewhat popular. His numbers had neither    
   > gone higher than 55 percent nor sunk below 51 percent. “It’s    
   > been the most stable for any president since the end of World    
   > War II,” Enten wrote.    
   >    
   > It didn’t last. Enten’s column appeared just as Biden’s approval    
   > rating began a downhill slide. According to FiveThirtyEight’s    
   > polling average, on July 26, Biden’s net approval was 10 points.    
   > Less than two months later, on September 13, his net approval    
   > was underwater at -3 points. In other words: By the time    
   > Americans returned from summer vacation, they had realized that    
   > Joe Biden’s version of “normalcy” isn’t what they’d had in mind.    
   > Maybe the sea breeze awakened their senses.    
   >    
   > Pundits tried to explain how the president’s August went    
   > terribly wrong. Was it COVID-19, the economy, or Afghanistan?    
   > Try all the above. Biden is in trouble not because of his    
   > failures in any one crisis, but because of his general    
   > incompetence. His positive approval rating wasn’t merely the    
   > victim of unfortunate events. It vanished as the public watched    
   > Biden respond to those events—and flail.    
   >    
   > Like bankruptcy, the 13-point swing against Biden happened in    
   > two stages: first gradually, then suddenly. It started like    
   > this. Biden’s numbers declined in early August as deaths from    
   > the Delta variant of the coronavirus increased at a geometric    
   > rate. At the same time, voters soured on the economy. Consumer    
   > pessimism wasn’t simply a function of virus-related capacity    
   > restrictions, mask requirements, labor shortages, and supply-    
   > chain slowdowns. It was also a consequence of rising inflation.    
   >    
   > “Spontaneous references to high prices for homes, vehicles, and    
   > household durables rose to its worst level since the all-time    
   > record in November 1974,” wrote Richard Curtin of the University    
   > of Michigan in a June consumer survey. “These unfavorable    
   > perceptions of market prices reduced overall buying attitudes    
   > for vehicles and homes to their lowest point since 1982.” For    
   > months, the White House and its allies dismissed inflation    
   > concerns as scaremongering. They said the rise in prices was    
   > only temporary. But “temporary” is now looking more like    
   > “indefinite.” And as consumer sentiment depreciated, so did    
   > Biden’s job approval.    
   >    
   > Then came stage two of Biden’s collapse. His approval rating    
   > dropped dramatically in the catastrophic weeks after the Taliban    
   > stormed Kabul on August 15. Voters watched the botched American    
   > retreat with horror and disgust. They recoiled at the    
   > administration’s reliance on terrorists for security around    
   > Kabul Airport during the evacuation. They reacted with sadness    
   > and fury when terrorists killed 13 U.S. servicemen and at least    
   > 60 Afghans. They couldn’t believe that the president left behind    
   > hundreds of American citizens, thousands of U.S. legal permanent    
   > residents, and tens of thousands of Afghan partners in the 20-    
   > year war against Islamic militancy and al-Qaeda. According to    
   > FiveThirtyEight, Biden’s disapproval rating overtook his    
   > approval rating on August 30—the same day that the last U.S.    
   > troops left Afghanistan. As of this writing, he hasn’t recovered.    
   >    
   > Will he? There is plenty of time before next year’s midterm    
   > elections for the public to reassess its views of the Biden    
   > presidency and put him above 50 percent approval once more. The    
   > best-case scenario for the White House looks like the following:    
   > The Delta wave passes, caseloads fall, and Americans forget    
   > about Biden’s farkakteh withdrawal from Afghanistan. The fading    
   > away of inflation would be nice, too. And if Democrats pull off    
   > the legislative logroll of the century and pass what the New    
   > York Times refers to euphemistically as a multitrillion-dollar    
   > “social policy bill,” voters may reward the creators of new    
   > entitlements to paid leave, universal pre-K, and two years of    
   > community college.    
   >    
   > Still, there’s reason to doubt that Biden will regain his    
   > footing easily. There’s reason to believe he won’t defy historic    
   > precedent in 2022 by maintaining Democratic control of the House    
   > and Senate. That reason is Biden himself. Biden’s tough talk and    
   > bold plans are cover for a chief executive who’s just not very    
   > good at his job.    
   >    
   > Nine months into office, the president has found it much easier    
   > to blame his predecessor and Republican governors for setbacks    
   > and mistakes than to change course and moderate his ambitions.    
   > The same man who said that “unity is our greatest strength” in a    
   > video marking the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001,    
   > terrorist attacks turns around and points fingers at his    
   > political adversaries, leads a party whose congressional leaders    
   > are hankering to transform America, and oversees a Justice    
   > Department that seems to open another investigation into GOP    
   > state governments on each day that ends in “y.”    
   >    
   > This administration’s haplessness and buck-passing touch every    
   > issue. Biden dismantled the Trump administration’s border-    
   > security protocols and found himself unable to stanch record    
   > numbers of illegal crossings on the southern border. He    
   > delegated the border crisis to Vice President Kamala Harris,    
   > whose search for the “root causes” behind the surge in illegal    
   > immigration has taken her to Guatemala and Mexico and El Paso,    
   > but not anywhere close to a solution. Biden’s proposal to curb    
   > the rise in violent crime is to make it harder for law-abiding    
   > citizens to possess firearms—a non sequitur masquerading as    
   > action. Biden claims that inflation will subside when Congress    
   > passes his several-trillion-dollar spending plans and tax hikes,    
   > and OPEC gives in to his pleas to boost energy production. It’s    
   > hard to decide which is more shocking: His economic illiteracy    
   > or his willingness to return the United States to dependence on    
   > foreign oil.    
   >    
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)