Joe Biden, the little man who wasn’t there

Washington Examiner ^ | 30 Aug, 2022 | Hugo Gurdon, Editor-in-Chief

[MtnClimber]

President Joe Biden has enjoyed a summer revival of sorts, meaning a rise in his public job approval number from a grotesquely low 36.8% in the RealClearPolitics average to a still lamentable 42%. In parallel, his disapproval fell from 57.4% to 54.7%.

This is enough for Democratic congressional candidates to rethink shunning the president on the campaign trail but is hardly a ringing endorsement.

Biden’s small but significant rebound is widely attributed to legislative “wins” such as the passage of the CHIPS Act, trumpeted as helping American computer chip makers compete with China, and the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act — three-quarters of a trillion dollars' worth of warmed up leftovers from the more costly failure, Build Back Better.

But although the public does not like ineptness and gridlock in Washington and might therefore like signs of life in the federal government, the passage of these bills is unlikely to have improved Biden’s image substantively.

More significant is that he was in hiding during midsummer, “strictly” isolating because he had COVID. This removed him from the public eye for weeks, and it is remarkable how much better he looks when you can’t see him. Biden is no hero, but if he has a superpower, it is invisibility. Being an empty suit has taken him to the top. His absence made voters’ hearts grow fonder in 2020. He won the presidency, remember, by retiring to his Delaware basement, avoiding the public gaze, and limiting his visible weirdness and blunders to occasional video appearances.

He is only now restarting his delayed midterm election tour, holding events postponed earlier this month and last month. It’s a fair bet these will do him less good than removing himself entirely from voter scrutiny.

[Vaduz]

Biden may have aged but he never grew past childhood.