Lost and nowhere to go: Outgoing US President Joe Biden’s big problem
From starting out as one of the youngest senators in American history to becoming the country’s oldest elected president, Joe Biden accomplished much, but will be remembered for one thing.
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Joe Biden began his career as one of the youngest senators in American history.
Almost half a century later, when his dream of running for president as the Democratic candidate finally came true, he was the oldest man to do so.
The reality of this did not seem lost on the 78-year-old, who promised to be a transitional president to a new generation.
“I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else,” he said during the 2020 campaign.
In the end, however, Mr Biden’s presidency was a bridge to nowhere. When he leaves the Oval Office next week, he will carry a legacy that for all of his achievements – and it is not an insignificant list – will forever be marked by his failure to know when to walk away.
Even since November’s election, which turned Mr Biden’s term into a four-year intermission in the era of Donald Trump, the 82-year-old has been muttering that he could have beaten his predecessor and now successor had he not made way for Vice President Kamala Harris.
He said as much to a USA Today reporter in his final interview, although when she asked if he would have had the vigour to serve for four more years, he replied: “Who the hell knows?”
It was the closest the President had come to admitting what was obvious to anyone who saw June’s election debate against Mr Trump that ultimately spelled the end of his career.
That night, the Republican complained Mr Biden had turned the US into “a Third World nation” ravaged by soaring inflation and illegal immigration. While that narrative propelled Mr Trump back to the White House, Mr Biden’s legacy is slightly more complicated.
The President’s big-spending policies bear a large slice of the blame for the cost of living increases that have been so painful for families.
However, the US has since been able to bring inflation under control more quickly than almost any other comparable country, delivering an economic soft landing that defied predictions of an almost inevitable recession.
Nearly 17 million jobs have been created under Mr Biden, the most in any presidential term. Unemployment is at a 50-year low. The US stock market just recorded its best two years this century.
Energy production is at an highest. The economy being handed to Mr Trump, in the words of Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, is “as good as it ever gets”.
In his farewell speech, Mr Biden said it would “take time to feel the full impact of all we’ve done together”, an implicit acknowledgment that he had failed to sell the benefits of his economic agenda that included trillions of dollars for clean energy, hi-tech manufacturing and infrastructure upgrades, as well as aggressive new limits on corporate power.
“But the seeds are planted,” the President told the nation from the Oval Office this week, “and they’ll grow and they’ll bloom for decades to come.”
As for the illegal immigration crisis, which Mr Trump has cited as the key reason for his return to power, Mr Biden’s mistakes can be traced back to the first day of his term when he undid his predecessor’s strict rules to secure the US-Mexico border. Some eight million migrants have since crossed illegally, a record influx with ramifications nationwide.
The irony, however, is that while Mr Trump’s immediate priority is securing the border and embarking upon the largest mass deportation operation in history, Mr Biden has quietly been paving the way for him. Illegal border crossings are now at the lowest level since Mr Trump’s final year in office and deportations of unauthorised arrivals are at a 10-year high.
The roots of Mr Biden’s unpopularity – his presidency will end with 36 per cent of Americans approving of his performance – can be traced back to the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Thirteen US troops were killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport as they scrambled to evacuate 120,000 people while the Taliban brutally swept back to power. It was a disaster, and yet it was also the completion of a withdrawal deal signed by Mr Trump which Mr Biden had vowed to see through to end the unpopular and expensive 20-year war.
Mr Trump later claimed the botched withdrawal was a sign of America’s weakness under Mr Biden that spurred Vladimir Put into invade Ukraine several months later.
Regardless of the Russian President’s motivations, his American counterpart’s response – rejuvenating NATO to back Ukraine while preventing all-out nuclear war – will likely be fondly remembered in the pages of history, even though he was unable to find a path to peace.
In his final days, Mr Biden has been racing to preserve his legacy, with a string of decisions that Mr Trump complained were making the transition “as difficult as possible”.
He issued sweeping bans on offshore oil and gas drilling, commuted the sentences of almost all criminals on federal death row, slapped new rules on exporting artificial intelligence chips and models, and extended deportation protections for some migrants.
He also pardoned his son Hunter and handed prestigious honours to allies including Hillary Clinton, ex-Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney and Democratic megadonor George Soros.
Mr Biden’s burst of activity suggests he is not ready to say goodbye. Indeed, when asked about his post-presidential plans, he said: “I’m not going to be out of sight or out of mind.”
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Originally published as Lost and nowhere to go: Outgoing US President Joe Biden’s big problem
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