Waiting for the Soup to Boil
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/09/opinion/joe-biden-unpopular.html
("Why Is Joe Biden So Unpopular?")
Joe Biden is clearly not a dynamic speaker. He does not stir passions in the manner of an eloquent and emotional Barack Obama.
Nor is the President a walking advertisement for egocentricity. Unlike Donald Trump, Mr. Biden does not have an insatiable need to slap his own back, to shine the spotlight on himself and announce his greatness at each and every opportunity.
Further, Joe Biden is an incumbent without serious challenge to his nomination for a second term. While the Republican party showcases the alternatives to Mr. Trump, and the remaining air in the room is consumed by talk of indictments, trial dates and the 14th Amendment, there is precious little room left for conversation from the Democratic side of the aisle. For the moment, this is very much a one sided discourse. It is the natural order of the political flow at this point in the election cycle.
But, Mr. Douthat, come back to me a year from now when this is a dialogue instead of a monologue. When the accomplishments of this President and his party are actually an integral part of the equation. And the negatives on the Republican side are no longer swept under the rug.
This is always a difficult moment to be an incumbent, to bide your time, to listen to the character assassinations, to hear of what you are not rather than what you are.
Patience in the political arena is never easy. But for a man like Joe Biden who has spent most of his adult life in this cauldron, who waited almost half a century after he entered the fray to lead this nation, patience may be his greatest and most enduring virtue.
Mr. Biden's day will come. Until then, Mr. Douthat, I suggest you not eat the soup before it has reached a boil.
That all makes perfect sense in "the sky is falling" scenario. And I will not subscribe to that philosohy, not yet. The glass may be more than half empty, but if we throw up our hands in despair, we will die of thirst next November. As to Kamala, what VP ever shines? It is a ceremonial post and she does not have the power, good or bad, to move the needle on matters of import. I hear your angst. I just am fighting my own. Don't give up hope.
Unfortunately, this soup will never boil. You give the electorate too much credit - there is overwhelming evidence even now that Biden has guided the ship through the covid fallout, socially and economically, with a steady hand, and set us on an infinitely more ever-keeled course than the bombastic chaos of his predecessor - and yet he gets credit for none of it. Why will it be any different a year from now? No matter how rosy the economy looks on paper at that time, or even if (highly unlikely) the Ukraine crisis ends, or if there is sensible legislation passed on immigration or guns (even more impossible) a vote for Biden will still be internalized as a vote for a cognitively-decaying geriatric president, or worse as this article implies, as a vote for Kamala, albeit with delayed implementation. The same pervasive forces - (essentially pure unbridled stupidity) that govern the perceptions of the electorate, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary (the election was stolen, January 6 was actually the work of leftist agitators, Trump is a victim of a renegade partisan justice department, climate change is a hoax, etc. etc. ) - are at work here also. Too many people have already made up their minds about Joe, and will not look past their preconceptions and see the evidence in front of them. Not now, and not a year from now. I think Biden has done a masterful job in a no-win situation, infrastructure bill and all, and I wish him well. I would vote for a decaying heap of garbage before voting for Trump (kind of the same thing), but the realist in me says that both Biden and Harris need to step aside, and soon, because the danger of them running and losing to that lunatic is too great. It seems very likely given Trump's mastery of subverting the judicial process, that there will be no final verdict on any of the 91 felonies before election day 2024. And even if there was, or the 14th amendment has teeth, a more vibrant, reasonable republican could present an insurmountable challenge to good old Joe. He needs to think of the greater good and do what's best for the country. The question is...who?