Biden's problem
Joe Biden is a veteran actor, miscast in the wrong movie.
I heard two Fox hosts referring to President Biden as feckless this morning. The hosts seem to have gotten a memo. Feckless is the Fox word of the day again.
Of course Biden looks feckless. He doesn't have the votes to lead. Republicans mock him for being a victim of their obstruction. Democratic voters are impatient with him because there aren't enough Democratic voters in key states to create a working majority in the Senate.
We just watched a giant reversal of fortune this week. A Democratic initiative is tantalizingly close. Senator Joe Manchin and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer finally worked out a compromise that can pass through reconciliation. The new bill has Manchin's fingerprints all over it. Biden gets faint-praise credit. Schumer persuaded a Democrat to agree to 20% of a Democratic bill, so long as it gave special benefits to West Virginia, so long as it scrapped being called "green," and so long as it changed its name to the "Inflation Reduction Act." It includes a 15% minimum corporate income tax, which meant that the U.S. would participate in a worldwide agreement that we led. At least we would show up for our own party. It is better than nothing.
Democrats rejoiced for a few hours.
Then the world remembered Arizona Senator Krysten Sinema who opposed ending the "carried interest loophole" which allows hedge fund managers to pay taxes on earnings at capital gains rates. She also didn't like that corporate minimum tax rate. After three days of suspense some still-uncertain new compromise has just been announced. Sinema gives her permission to the supplicants.
There is another hitch.
The Senate parliamentarian must rule on whether the last-minute changes now make the bill ineligible for passage with 50 votes via reconciliation. Biden by yet another string.
There is a giant unspoken message out of this legislative history. Biden is tossed around by forces bigger than himself. The great asset that Biden brought to the presidency was deep relationships within the Senate and a thorough understanding of process.That doesn't mean he can change his predicament, only that he likely understands how thoroughly he has been sabotaged by Republicans and the two Democrats.
Joe Biden is miscast.
Biden's skillset might have worked if Democrats had reliable majorities. He could have presided over a well-functioning machine--like elderly royalty, perhaps, or better yet, a figurehead board chairman--quietly acknowledging a job being done by competent staff. Biden looks that part and could speak those lines.
The presidency at this moment is an action thriller movie. Biden is the wrong actor for the part. Biden cannot persuasively play the tough guy. Nor can he be the voice of strength and optimism for a new generation. He doesn't look or act like the future.
Events are bringing the future into dim view. There are strong voices out there. Liz Cheney is the nation's most persuasive voice against Trump's election denial. Republicans are unlikely to choose Cheney anytime soon. The Arizona primary elections showed that. So does the silence of southern Oregon GOP candidates in the face of a Republican Party resolution denying the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Too many Republican voters believe in Trump. It isn't her time yet. She is doing what she needs to do while Trump's clock is still ticking.
Biden will step aside because his clock has run out. The next generation is ready to grab power and members of it are already doing what ambitious people do.
More on these shortly.