Posted on 01/02/2022 9:28:24 PM PST by SeekAndFind
President Joe Biden faces an avalanche of problems when he returns to the White House in the new year.
For starters, Covid - the virus he vowed to 'shut down' the moment he entered office - is out of control. Just weeks ago, he warned the unvaccinated that they face a "winter of severe illness and death."
Yet the most vaccinated major US cities are setting new records for Covid infections, vaccinated athletes are collapsing across the world, and 2/3 of the Belgian staff at a fully-vaccinated antarctic base have Covid.
Now, the CDC has pivoted to a 'pox party' strategy by essentially encouraging people to spread the mildly symptomatic Omicron variant with a shortened quarantine period (5 days vs. 10), followed by 'get back to work with a mask' for five more days. The agency also dropped end-of-infection PCR testing guidelines because 'they can remain positive for up to 12 weeks.'
This means that for the past 21 months, people sat home for extra days and weeks because their test came back with an irrelevant positive. We didn’t know this 6, 12, 18 months ago? Really? — Yossi Gestetner (@YossiGestetner) December 29, 2021
Oh, and Biden now insists there's no federal solution to Covid. Loyal Church of Covid adherents are undoubtedly crestfallen ahead of midterms.
"At the end of the day, his fortunes are intertwined with COVID," Democratic strategist Joel Payne tells The Hill. "Joe Biden is president because of COVID, but Dems are struggling right now because of COVID. And until they can find someone to figure this out, people are going to be mad about COVID."
Bill Galston, a senior fellow of governance studies at the Brookings Institution who also served as a White House policy adviser to former President Clinton, said it is important for Biden to strike a balanced tone and avoid overpromising given the unpredictability of the virus.
“They’re in possession of all the facts and the most experienced scientists and public policy experts in the business, and I think that they’re going to do everything that can be done. I see the decline in the president’s ratings on COVID since midsummer in part as a consequence of what I regard as unwise overpromising that occurred at the beginning of July,” Galston said. “He came perilously close to hanging out a ‘mission accomplished’ banner at the door of the White House.” -The Hill
Next, Biden and Congressional Democrats will attempt to revive the corpse of their $2 trillion Build Back Better agenda - while still facing opposition from moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Without their buy-in, the best Biden and crew can hope for is to salvage components of it into smaller chunks that the two moderates may or may not agree to.
"To face this many genuine political fires, from a pandemic raging again to major legislation that might be finished, is the worst way to start a new year," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University." Just to add to the challenge, the midterm season will get fully underway, and it will be harder to persuade any politician to do something that poses electoral risk."
The White House will also grapple with supply chain issues and inflation in 2022, after repeatedly insisting it was 'transitory' throughout the second half of 2021.
"In addition to COVID, this is where Biden and his team fumbled the ball," according to one Democratic strategist. "They denied there was a problem, and then they looked silly when they had to backpedal. They can’t do that kind of thing again. It looks bad."
And with inflation expected to persist into the new year, the White House will once again need to tweak its messaging instead of its go-to that Congress needs to pass BBB in order to tame the ongoing price hikes.
"Time is not the friend here," said Jim Manley, a former aide to ex-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). "The last thing that we as Democrats can afford is to go through a prolonged period of negotiating as we head towards the midterms."
Next up, the Democrat exodus, as at least 23 Democratic members of Congress have announced that they won't seek reelection this year - setting Republicans up for a potential red wave that would dash Democrats' plan for wanton spending.
Finally, Biden will have to deal with Donald Trump.
"He remains the 800-pound gorilla in the room, and I think President Biden in 2020 ran offering himself as the alternative to the status quo, and President Trump may have the opportunity to flip that script on him," said GOP strategist Colin Reed, who suggested that 2024 will likely include 'strong Republican contenders other than Trump.'
"There’s just a lot of holes to poke in the Biden record, and a Republican candidate, be it Donald Trump or anyone else, is going to have a lot of material to work with."
The Rats don’t care. They’ll carry on and continue to push their agenda.
While the White House team might push to bring B-B-B back and attempt again....primaries start up shortly (in about a hundred days) and I would guess that a quarter of the House Democratic members aren’t that thrilled to chat over this. Maybe if they had a better leader than Pelosi...something could be generated. I see zero accomplishments for the next sixty days.
For the time being I am happy to report that I am severely healthy and alive.
Let’s go, Brandon!
Political disaster? How about societal disaster . . . ?
We wonder , could this be COVID. If it is , is it the bad one (Delta that kill folks) .....
Had covid (confirmed by +antibody) in Sept which was likely delta. The hallmark symptom is losing sense of smell. If you can still smell things you likely don’t have delta. Could be omicron, flu, a cold, viral pneumonia, etc.
Instead of shutting down covid, this commie a-hole has shut down America. Biden, an alternative to the status quo? Oh please! This under achieving vegetable that had grown a root system in his congressional seat for 47 years is a business as usual status quo politician and never anything else. What a disaster he is for America.
Correction:
Joe Biden is president
Because of CHEATING !!!
I hate it when the pharmacy takes forever to fill a prescription.
I like the way u think!
Good post.
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
H.L. Mencken
But we don’t because we’re a civilized people.
Exactly.....Don’t you just love it how the press and writers continue to treat write about Biden as they have other Presidents when in fact they’re making up everything as they go. Dems running this outfit will continue their agenda while they engage the public in anything that diverts from their destructive efforts moline this nation up according to the designs of those pulling all the strings for one world order governance.
I think “shutting down things” economically worldwide IS the plan as they set their “Re-set” buttons for World Governance. We see business and commerce going on line as well as education.....many jobs going to “home-work”.....and I think we’ll see more of this.
This is certainly according to Obama’s plan for transforming the United States of America.....into something it’s not.
It is Under control but no thanks to the Junta. The latest mutation is mild. That is how the Spanish Flu ended, with a mild version of the virus.
It's pretty obvious by now the Junta wants the Scamdemic to continue. Success in defeating the CCP virus in India has actually been suppressed in the news and on Big Tech. How else to continue the mail in voting so Xi can steal the next election for his puppets?
Reread later. No mental therapy suggestions, but sounds like you need Trump’s 2nd term.
That’s right. They’ll continue to double and triple down.
The whole covid scam, including vaccine passports, is falling apart on them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.