Speaking tonight at his first State-of-the-Union Speech, 79-year-old President Joe Biden limps in front of a joint session of Congress to convince U.S. citizens that the country is strong and doing better. All reports on the ground and in his abysmal approval ratings say otherwise, with the American public that voted him in office approving his performance only 40.8 aggregate, lower ratings than his besieged predecessor 75-year-old President Donald Trump. No matter how much the media and Democrat Party destroyed Trump in the 2020 election, the fact remains that the U.S. was energy independent, economy growing without inflation and the world was at peace. Biden delivers his speech tonight trying to sell voters on how things will be in a murky future, hoping for the best. But the TV audience will look at the aging president and form their own conclusions.
When it comes to the Ukraine War, Biden will say he’s led a vast global coalition to punish 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine. Biden will take zero responsibility for failing to respond for the last two months to Putin’s urgent requests to work on a new security architecture in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Biden told Putin that all his ideas were all “non-starters.” When Putin realized that all his red lines were breached by Biden, he decided to take his “military-technical measures” which included a war with Ukraine. Biden has done nothing but threaten Putin with crippling economic sanctions over the last two months, spending no time in diplomacy. Biden will throw the anti-Russian crowd on both sides of the aisle red meat on Russian aggression. He takes no responsibility for pushing Putin to the brink, despite saying he would commit no troops to Ukraine.
If there’s one think Republicans and Democrats agree on it’s their contempt for Putin, so Biden should get some mileage from slamming the Russian president. But instead of pointing fingers, Biden should use his time to urge all parties to commit to an urgent ceasefire and eventual peace talks. Biden’s abysmal relations with Russia precludes the U.S. from playing any constructive role in ceasefire or peace talks. Biden’s speech will highlight the global coalition fighting Putin but will take no responsibility for pushing the world to the brink. NPR/PBS’Marist poll shows that only 34% of the public approve of his handling of the Ukraine War. Biden has done almost nothing telling Americans why Ukraine should matter to the U.S., let alone back possible WW III or nuclear war for the Black Sea country. Most citizens don’t know the Biden family’s strong ties with the Ukraine government.
Going after Putin with a vengeance, Biden plans to reassure citizens that the horrific inflation especially at the gas pumps will somehow be temporary. Biden’s the wrong person to try to sell the public on anything, let alone what they experience daily. Russia accounts for 10% of the world’s petroleum and natural gas output. Economic war with Putin has driven energy prices through the roof, promising to punish the public for the foreseeable future with exorbitant energy prices. When you add to that, Biden’s blind commitment to alternative energy, dismantling the energy independence under Trump, there’s no end in sight to the nearly double-digit inflation. Biden’s speech will try to sell the public on better days ahead. Biden’s approach to the economy has been letting the government finance trillions in national debt, now over $30 trillion, all to pay for his ambitious social programs.
Biden plans to distract the national audience on the White House battle against the Covid-19 global pandemic. Over 975,000 Americans have died from the deadly novel coronavirus and all its variants. When Biden took office, he campaigned on Trump’s utter incompetence managing the crisis, selling the public on a bill of goods. When Biden took Office only 373,022 U.S. citizens had died from the virus. Biden’s Covid-19 track record was as bad, if not worse, than Trump’s. So when he talks about all his White House success, citizens know the difficulty of finding self-tests, despite the current slowdown in the latest Omicron variant. Biden and Democrats did a masterful job demonizing Trump in 2020, making voters think Trump was responsible for the deadly virus and racism in American. Biden now has even lower approval ratings than Trump at his worst.
Biden speaks tonight to an anxious public worried about putting gas in their cars and paying for groceries. All of Biden’s giveaways worked OK a year ago but have long since vanished. Gone are the days of stable GDP growth with low inflation, leaving the country poised for better days. Consumers and Wall Street traders now live with daily fear, not know which markets will go, set now in a roller coaster pattern, signaling the end of a bull market. With inflation raging and oil supplies dwindling, the prospect for a quick fix to the economy has been vanished. Consumers now look for higher prices for just about everything except their wages. Biden can try to sell the public on a temporary inflation, but no one, including the nation’s top economists, see better days ahead. Biden stands in front of a national scared about the future, worried that they can’t make ends meet from today’s inflation.
