Worried that a Sen. Joe Manchin, 76, (D-W.V.) 2024 presidential run would sink 81-year-old President Joe Biden, Democrats expressed reservations about handing the presidency to 77-year-old former President Donald Trump. Hard to imagine another 1992 H. Ross Perot (R-Tx.) event, when the Texas oil billionaire ran against President George H. W. Bush handing Clinton his first term in office. “I think it would be very, very unfortunate if Joe Manchin decided to do that,” said 73-year-old Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), expressing the same concerns of other Democrats. But the real concern of Democrats is not that Machin has a shot of becoming president, he would highlight intolerable weaknesses in Biden’s candidacy. Biden is already the oldest president in U.S. history and would insult fair-mined voters in 2024 if he dares to run for a second term.
No one in the Democrat Party is forced to stick with Biden, complaining about a prospect of a Biden-Trump rematch, something polls say at the moment Trump leads in a hypothetical match-up. While that could change if they really run against each other, it does underscore the weakness in Biden’s candidacy. No president with Biden’s 40% approval ratings have ever won reelection, not because of only age but because of his management of the economy and foreign policy. On both counts, Biden’s presidency has been a failure by anyone’s metrics. Stabenow, like other Democrats, worries about another Trump presidency, with Democrats expressing the same hype that it would be end of Democracy in the United States. What happened during Trump’s first term in office? Did Democracy really die with Trump first term in office or did the nation thrive economically and in foreign policy?
Voters need to ask President Ronald Reagan’s 1980 line when he ran against former President Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Every voter knew in 1980 with stagflation and a failed foreign policy that they were in fact not better off under Carter. So the nation voted Reagan in an historic landslide. With so many Democrats exaggerating the disastrous effect of Trump’s presidency, Democrats and independents are brainwashed to think Democracy died with Trump. “I don’t buy that scenario,” Machin told CBS Norah McDonnell Sunday. Recent polls show that there almost as many Democrats discontent with Biden’s presidency. Only Biden’s PR team makes the case of how much better off the country is today that it was at the heights of the Covid-19 global pandemic. Democrats successfully painted Trump as responsible for the pandemic.
Two major factors led to Trump’s 2020 defeat: (1) the Covid-19 pandemic and (2)) the George Floyd death. Trump was blamed by the public for the excessive deaths and economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, then, to add insult-to-injury, racism in the America. When think of it, both are preposterous to hang on Trump. Yet that’s exactly what voters did, opting for Biden, as if he’d do a better job. Biden and Democrats frequently tout the economy as proof of Biden’s success. But anyone coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic would be made to look good. Eventually the economy snapped back form the dark days of government shutdowns that damaged the economy. Before the Covid shutdowns, the economy was growing at a 2% rate with steady growth and no inflation. After Biden’s many stimulus bills and the Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine War, Biden fueled the worst inflation in 40 years.
Biden’s handlers ignore the fact that the Ukraine War and Russian oil embargo started the worldwide oil shortages and skyrocketing prices, leading to runaway pump prices and inflation. Federal Reserve Board intervention to stop more inflation drove interest rates to 20-year-hgihs putting a drag on the economy, leaving many consumers scrambling to make ends meet. How long the Fed’s high interest rate cycle will last is anyone’s guess. But Biden’s economy, with its high inflation and high interest rates, are here to stay for the indefinite future. “I will do anything I can to help my country,” Manshin said, not buying that he’s playing spoiler if he decides to run. If things were so good, a third party candidate wouldn’t stop the incumbent from winning a second term. Democrats and independents have concerns about Biden’s age, but, more importantly, his competency for four more years.
If Democrats have such reservations about Biden’s second term, why would they encourage someone else to run, like 56-year-old California Gov. Gavin Newsom who’s been testing the water traveling around the country. “My reaction is disappointment, deep disappointment,” said 77-year-old Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) concerned that a Manchin third party candidacy could sink Biden in 2024. All the anxiety from Democrats stem from the fact that Biden has been over his head, managing the economy and foreign policy. Polls show that Democrats, Rebulblicans and independents don’t want Biden to run for a second term. Only Biden, with his family and White House entourage want him to run for a second term. Biden said himself in 2020 he would be a one-term president. But now that he’s there, he can’t see the good of the country only his selfish reasons for a second term.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
