Opinion: Biden is not living up to his promises - CNN
By: President Joe (CNN)
Poor old puppet...............
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Scott Jennings, a CNN contributor and Republican campaign adviser, is a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and a former campaign adviser to Sen. Mitch McConnell. He is a partner at RunSwitch Public Relations in Louisville, Kentucky. Follow him on Twitter @ScottJenningsKY. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.
(CNN)Joe Biden's presidential campaign was built on two pillars -- "I'm going to shut down the virus" and I am not Donald Trump. He is failing on both promises, as Covid rages and Biden's behavior more and more mirrors his predecessor's.
Biden's message to the country on Thursday, in which he outlined his new six-point strategy to handle the Covid-19 pandemic, was (another) tirade from a president who promised to unify the country in his inaugural address, but has devolved into an angry, lecturing partisan as his administration drowns in criticism from the public over Afghanistan, the economy, and a surge in coronavirus cases nationwide.
Scott Jennings When you are the president, you have two primary ways to move people to your point of view: inspiration or coercion. It was said that Biden would employ the former, but he has resorted to the latter via a series of executive mandates and scolding speeches as he seeks higher vaccination rates. Gone is the soaring rhetoric of Biden's campaign, replaced with the kind of bile and disdain many Americans hated about "the former guy," as Biden would say.
It is doubtful this will work. In fact, it may backfire as many unvaccinated Americans recoil against being told what to do when it comes to their own health care, if you believe recent polling. Heck, the same day Biden was rolling out his plan directing the Labor Department to require all employers with more than 100 workers to require either the vaccine or regular testing, Vice President Kamala Harris was making videos supporting abortion rights using the my body, my choice arguments common on the left.
Which is it, guys? Read More Biden's six-point Covid plan leaves some holes Perhaps one of the Biden administration's biggest failures handling the pandemic has been these kinds of mixed messages. Harris early on was one of the worst offenders, stating in a debate that she would take the vaccine when health officials said it was ready, but not if President Donald Trump said so. I suspect this is a similar feeling some of the unvaccinated have at being told to take a vaccine by President Joe Biden. Health experts overwhelmingly agree the vaccine should be taken, but the reflexive partisan instinct to reject advice from politicians you hate isn't confined to one party, even as Democrats have memory-holed their own part in causing vaccine hesitancy.
After taking office, the mixed messages from Biden and Harris continued. In April, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration abruptly paused use of the Johnson & Johnson one-dose Covid-19 vaccine after extremely rare reports of blood clots. White House officials didn't immediately brief the President and the news seemed to have caught the administration off guard. The handling of the situation soon turned messy and officials worried it could erode the public's trust in the vaccine. (The pause was ultimately lifted, but the damage was already done.)
In August, CNN reported, "Top health officials in the Biden administration have added to the confusion with a series of contradictory messages on everything from masks to mandates." And more recently, on booster shots, the Financial Times reported that "Biden's Covid booster shot plan" was "mired in confusion amid regulatory hold-ups." Two weeks ago, two senior leaders in the FDA's vaccine review office announced they're stepping down this fall, further depleting an agency with an eroded morale due to the workload and that still doesn't have a permanent head eight months into Biden's term.
Charlie Dent: An Afghan refugee lived with my family. Biden has let her and her country down And during his speech Thursday, Biden said his new plan was necessary to "protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers." If you believe in the efficacy of the vaccines, why do the vaccinated need protection? Yes, there have been some breakthrough infections, but they are extremely rare and mild. If you were already skeptical of whether you needed a vaccine, there's a strong chance you would interpret Biden's words and actions as a total lack of confidence that these shots work.
Time and again, when given a chance to inspire and unify, Biden and his team have confused and hectored the very unvaccinated Americans he needs to reach the most. It was just in July that his CDC director, Rochelle Walensky, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that there would be no national vaccination mandates. Now we have mandates and an angry president who has given up on his supposed legendary empathy in favor of the kind of dictatorial style that Democrats once hammered Trump for.
The pandemic is being weaponized As a political matter, Biden may find some running room on his mandate plan. Polling conducted by the Associated Press in late August found majority support for mandates, driven largely by people who have already gotten their shots. And a new CNN poll shows Americans have grown more supportive of mandates.
His statement that "patience is wearing thin" with the unvaccinated will find resonance with a great many people, including Republicans like me who made the easy personal decision to get vaccinated after reviewing the data and situation.
This isn't a question of smart politics; rather, it is whether Biden's move will convince the unvaccinated crowd to get their shots. And there's nothing in his plan or attitude, even if it works for him politically, that rallies skeptical Americans to view that the vaccine works. Polling from the Washington Post, in fact, indicated that 7 in 10 unvaccinated workers who were not self-employed would likely quit their jobs if mandated to get a vaccine at work and no exemptions were offered.
Ultimately, the American people will render a midterm report card on Biden's Covid leadership when they vote in the November 2022 election. If they hold the President to his own words, it won't be pretty: "220,000 Americans dead... Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths shouldn't remain as President of the United States of America," Biden said on October 22, 2020, to lead off a debate against Donald Trump. As of September, over 210,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 since Biden took office, according to the CDC's tracking data. We've reached the threshold of presidential failure, according to Biden himself. The question now is: Can the president turn it around, or has he just settled on a political course rather than one that has a fighting chance of unifying the American people?
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But he's doing a fine job or so we are told.................................
Compared to the last administration, he is doing outstanding. While there are items/promises that I wish he would address sooner rather than later, and a few things that I disagree with, only right wing news sources like to imply that we expect perfection. He is less than 1 year into his term, he has time.
He hasn't done one thing right so far.
Maybe if your hope is that the US looks and operates like North Korea.
Oh yes......no mean tweets. His handlers just cut his mic and shuffle him off the stage.
The left likes it when their politicians lie to them and promise to take other peoples money.
They just love that shit .... they aren't smart enough to see it hurts them as well.
As a fascist tyrant!
Of course President Biden is doing a fine job.
Yeppers, the folks left behind in Afghanistan would likely agree with you.
/s
When your own party's propaganda machine calls you out...your fucked up.
He never made many promises aside from that grand lie about trying to unite us.
He has however, lived up to all of Bernie Sanders promises!
Lol! As if you could ever, ever, ever unite with those on the other side of the isle. [DELETED]
You know, right back at you. There is no reason to ever unite with the left. The left have proven repeatedly with their ridiculous comments on this forum that there is no compromise; it is either you or us- and it definitely won't be you.
Now back to treating Biden the same way the left treated Trump for the last 5 and a half years and counting. The human fuck up machine in the White House is producing material faster than it can be published! Don't worry; we promise Biden's impeachment will be as painful as possible- we so love left wing tears.
Completely ass backwards as usual.
And you're doing such a bang up job with statements such as you just made.
And equally to every left winger. The only way we unite is if one side gives in to the other. Ain't gonna happen.
If he was going to unite as he said, he would be able to take the most radical among us and get it done. He can't and was fucking stupid to think he could. Just like his old boss.
Exactly why I would never have made that statement in the first place. I’m not about to pretend that there is any possibility of myself aligning with right wing nutjobs.
I believe it could happen but the majority middle must take charge and stomp out the extremists on both sides. The middle can compromise and in an honest manner. Not what politicians and the extremists call compromise today but real compromise.
The key is the middle 80%. Screw the loud, crazy whackadoodles on the extreme left and right. If that can't happen, another civil war is probably inevitable and no one will really win that. Especially not the way the talking heads here on NT think they will.
The key is the middle 80%.
What world are you living in?! There is no middle 80%. Name five members here who you consider to be representative of your imaginary 80% of the population that are positively influenced by both sides of US politics.
This place, is by no means, a good representation of the politics of the USA. Not even close. You are only fooling yourself if you believe that it is.
NT might be a good representation of say AOC's district or maybe one of the other squad members but that is about it. Look at the up votes if you don't believe it. They lean heavily left, Heavily
The 10% rule works for this country.
10% wackadoodles on the left, 10% crackpots on the right and 80% within say 10-20% of an exact middle of the spectrum. The sane people. The people willing to compromise.
Don't believe it at your peril. I know you think the "loud" shiny penny always gets the attention but if the shit truly hits the fan, no one is going to give a crap about that and the middle will prevail ....
Bank on it ....
Bullshit. This place is a cross section of the electorate. You couldn’t design a better one. Prior to politics becoming so front and center in everyday conversation, we had members who had little interest in political discussion, yet they were actively posting and commenting on everything but. They are still here, but now they are drawn into political discussions because political issues are touching nerves across the board. You are an unobservant idiot if you haven’t seen this unfolding before your eyes ever since a black man launched his wildly successful campaign for POTUS. There is no middle 80%. That is so laughable that you have really exposed your naivety with your comment.
No, it’s not.
Yes, it is.
Is that all you've got - school yard retorts?
I know you are but what am I
Sure, you keep telling yourself that. However, nothing could further from the truth.
The majority of the posting/voting membership here clearly leans left. Of course, one would need to be unbiased to see that.
A trait that is in very short supply with some folks here.
You’ve been here as long as anyone, and though I don’t know for certain I would think you were active on NV as well. The membership hasn’t always been as left leaning as it is now, it has accelerated in that direction ever since the gop started revealing what it truly stands for when a black man dared to run for POTUS. Becoming the party of no at the same time that Obama won is what started opening the eyes of the centrists, and that trend has progressed alongside the gop’s refusal to condemn their racist supporters, along with their condemnation of BLM supporters over the years since. Their incredibly unpopular policies and abject lack of leadership and rationality has driven the centrist leftward. There is no 80% to be reached by the racist right.
I was toward the end. Enough to know that much of that mafia ended up here
Opinions do vary. I stand by my comment and i don't recall any credible moves of members from left to right or right to left. I really don't see the political mix being much different than NV was. What is different is the amount of crap that is allowed to be dumped on other members. Perrie does a a MUCH better job of controlling that sophomoric partisan BS for everyone here than NV did. Some of the moderators not so much.
Again, opinions do vary. Your sweeping generalization of the "racist right" is just proof of how far off i think yours is. And i never said 80% were conservative. I said about 80% weren't crazy left or right wing fundamentalists but were varying distances left or right of the middle.
You are exactly right about this.
This is a very heavily left membership here and it’s designed here to suit them at our expense on every issue.
along with fairness those traits are virtually non existent among the majority.
Gotta laugh on this statement coming from CNN... It must really such for the administration when one of their biggest cheerleaders fails to hide him again.
Scott Jennings is one of those Republican pussies that didn't have the guts to be never Trump so he spent the last 4 years pretending to be objective about Trump while he actually complimented Trump every chance he got. his opinion is kind of worthless
Which, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with the article and Biden screwing up.
But congrats on getting Trump in there somewhere yet again!
Fucking shoot the messenger shit again
In his column Scott Jennings claims that Biden's behavior is mirroring Trumps
that is ridiculous and it makes his entire column worthless is that clear enough for you?
TDS is a terrible, debilitating disease, isn't it?
I hope they start a telethon fundraiser for a cure soon.
He explained it all quite well.
We'll just say you don't agree with his assessment.
It's not my fault that Scott Jennings opinion is worthless it's his fault. You posted an opinion piece . This thing is not fact based
Tough shit John. It is an opinion piece. Is that somehow against the rules here? You post your opinion every damned day and sometimes YOURS is worthless. Don't like it, don't fucking read. And Texan didn't post this I did.
Yep, you are entitled to an opinion.
Now that is just an incredibly ignorant and false statement. I'll give you a chance to make it right by telling the truth.
Another false statement.
What is against the rules is headline manipulation, Op-ed or otherwise.
This is the original as copied from CNN.com :
Biden is not living up to his promises
Thank you in advance for changing it back to its original form.
Very good Sis.
Oh, gee, THAT will just change EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope to re infect them with another dose of it when #45 becomes #47!
Delusional
Tell it to TiG. I believe it's HIS fetch seed development.
Biden is the new definition of what it is to be human debris. What a failure!