What Might A Lame Duck Biden Aim For?

January 14, 2022

These are a pretty bad days for U.S. President Joe Biden.

Wednesday: Quinnipiac poll shows Biden with 33 percent approval rating

The poll found 57 percent disapproved of Biden's handling of the economy, 54 percent disapproved of his handling of foreign policy and 55 percent disapproved of his handling of the pandemic, which was once a consistent bright spot for Biden.

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Thursday: Kyrsten Sinema Backs Senate Filibuster in Blow to Joe Biden Amid Voting Rights Showdown

Senator Kyrsten Sinema has delivered a major blow to President Joe Biden as she reiterated her support for the chamber's 60-vote filibuster—the biggest obstacle for Democrats in passing voting rights legislation.

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Thursday: Biden all but concedes defeat on voting, election bills

All but conceding defeat, President Joe Biden said Thursday he’s now unsure the Democrats' major elections and voting rights legislation can pass Congress this year. He spoke at the Capitol after a key fellow Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, dramatically announced her refusal to go along with changing Senate rules to muscle the bill past a Republican filibuster.

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Thursday: Supreme Court blocks vaccine rule for companies, allows health care worker mandate

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration's vaccine-or-test rule for businesses with at least 100 workers, but granted a separate request from the Biden administration to allow its vaccine mandate for health care workers to take effect.

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Thursday: Producer price index increased by 0.2%, up more than 6% for 2021

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Friday: U.S. Retail Sales Slide Most in 10 Months on Inflation, Omicron

The value of overall purchases decreased 1.9%, after a revised 0.2% gain a month earlier, Commerce Department figures showed Friday. The figures aren’t adjusted for inflation, suggesting price-adjusted receipts were even weaker than the headline number.

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Friday: U.S. Consumer Sentiment Drops More Than Expected Due To Inflation Worries

Noting inflation's regressive impact, Curtin said consumer sentiment among households with total incomes below $100,000 slumped by 9.4 percent in early January, while sentiment among households with incomes over that amount increased by 5.7 percent.

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Losses on all fronts. The midterms will likely be devastating for the Democrats. Afterwards Biden will be a lame duck.

The only field where he will still be able to show political initiative, and maybe have some successes, will be in foreign policy.

What could he aim for?

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Posted by b on January 14, 2022 at 17:57 UTC | Permalink

Comments

I know! Detente with Russia and China! How amazing would that be? Cancel student loan debt. Minimum wage to 18/hr. He could get re-elected so easily…

Posted by: Hickory | Jan 14 2022 18:05 utc | 1

casus belli

Posted by: urblintz | Jan 14 2022 18:12 utc | 2

There is talk among some Democrats that Hillary Clinton should be the Democrat candidate in 2024 because Biden and Harris are such non-entities. I hope it comes about because I’d really love to see Hillary “defeat” Donald again.

Posted by: Ghost Ship | Jan 14 2022 18:12 utc | 3

What could Biden aim for? What else can propel an unpopular president to another term? War!

Posted by: JC | Jan 14 2022 18:13 utc | 4

C’mon, man. The USA has the best democracy one can buy. And we have Dominion Voting Systems.
( I love the name. A bit too… on the nose, though. )
Everything is going to be fine.
10 percent for the big guy.
Where is Kamala? Chilling in the Yay with Willie Brown? I remember b saying that Kamala in Finnish means horrible.
b is a Cassandra like Michel Houellebecq.
Sickening. I am going to move to Moscow.

Posted by: lex talionis | Jan 14 2022 18:18 utc | 5

The question is not really what Biden will do as a lame duck. Rather it is what the Atlanticist-Deep State, who will equally be lame ducks, will do.
I expect that they will do everything possible to prevent this outcome, including finding an excuse to cancel the election, if they realize that they can’t steal it.
If they do lose the election, then I would expect the decline of the U.S. into anarchy to accelerate, as the Atlanticist-Deep State does everything possible to make it possible for their opponents to govern.

Posted by: dh-mtl | Jan 14 2022 18:27 utc | 6

I think the US foreign policy strategy at the moment is to sabotage EU-Russia relations.
In this long run this benefits China, in the short term, it might buy some time for US — by making EU more dependent on US and slowing down Russia’s industrial buildout, compared to what it could’ve been with EU being less suicidal.
None of this helps Democrats any good politically. With Senators Manchin and Sinema voting with Republicans, Congress was already effectively split. Assuming Republicans regain nominal control at the end of the year, Democrats will fall back to the default strategy of blaming Mitch McConnell or whoever takes the role he had. That sets up 2024.
Prediciton 1: Democrat vs Republican has zero impact on foreign policy either way
Prediction 2: US slowly gets forced out of middle east and central asia. At some point this gets too frustrating and troops will have to be deployed again. Who will be the lucky winner? I nominate Egypt, it hasn’t been invaded in too long

Posted by: ptb | Jan 14 2022 18:29 utc | 7

Inasmuch as I don’t care about the US retarded politics, its (USA) ability to set the world on fire, literally, makes me wish Joe Biden would show some strength of character and stare down the war party. I wouldn’t believe that he is thinking of running for the second term. But then, an American politician is nothing if not deluded. Let’s hope he is smart enough not to start a war he cannot win or finish.

Posted by: Steve | Jan 14 2022 18:31 utc | 8

B.
Can you confirm if Ukraine has booted up and is running at max output all of it’s 15 nuclear reactors? Even the ones damaged by using US based fuel?
I only found it in one source, it would be good to confirm this.
Just think, any Russian military action could be blamed on causing a meltdown. The ultimate PR big stick.

Posted by: Les7 | Jan 14 2022 18:36 utc | 9

which side is the war party?

Posted by: ld | Jan 14 2022 18:46 utc | 10

Does war with Russia count as foreign policy success?
Seems Biden will be able to add that to resume.
Of course, it is not Biden’s decision though he will need to behave as if it were.
Thing is, the threat to Russia comes from the US.
Will it take the bait or attack the hunter – literally or indirectly?

Posted by: jared | Jan 14 2022 19:07 utc | 11

Bad days can always get worse. I guess we (on this American side of the pond) are all experiencing the empty shelves at the supermarkets. It’s the “supply chains” issue. One of my contacts warns things are about to get worse: “Expect more COVID travel disruption in the weeks leading up to Chinese New Year (CNY). A lot more. Add to that CNY holiday and Olympics travel restrictions- we are going to see delays in production and shipments through March. Many more cities (than are being reported in the west) are going through mandatory testing and travel restrictions- even movement within that city is restricted. Xian, Zhengzhou, Yuzhou, and more – all in Henan province. Per the BBC article (cited) on Tianjin, north near Beijing. But that’s not all. It looks like Omicron is spreading rapidly in China too. We can expect restrictions on movement in more and more cities in the coming weeks. This affects the movement of raw materials, staff, finished goods. Delays, higher costs, more disruption.”
By the way, I find this article on the US-Russian “negotiations” simply adorable, particularly the last sentence: What is clear, however, is that we enter a new tournament of great power politics and that Europe arrives at the start not as a strong, unified team, but as throng of plump puerile pygmies.

Posted by: Maracatu | Jan 14 2022 19:07 utc | 12

thanks b… but i see it as more proof of decaying empire… it doesn’t matter whether the dems or repubs are in power.. both work for the war party, centered in wall st..
i agree with some of the earlier posters commentary…
@ lex talionis | Jan 14 2022 18:18 utc | 5… i’ll meet you in moscow!
@ dh-mtl | Jan 14 2022 18:27 utc | 6.. doesn’t matter if they win or lose… usa is on a fast track to decline and nothing is going to change this as i see it..
@ ptb | Jan 14 2022 18:29 utc | 7.. prediction 1 not a prediction, but a fact! i like your prediction 2 and hope to see it in my lifetime..
@ ld | Jan 14 2022 18:46 utc | 10 – easy answer.. both sides… everything else is a facade..
europe is cementing its roll as complete loser as well in all of this…europe is a much bigger loser then biden, lol.. i thought canada, australia and other countries were impressive in their slavish devotion to the usa, but europe does them 1 better..

Posted by: james | Jan 14 2022 19:15 utc | 13

If he had lifted ‘sanctions’ (merciless, global, trade embargo) against Venezuela and Iran, global oil production would have increased anywhere from 2-4M bpd by now. But he chose the mindless path of U.S. aggression.

Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Jan 14 2022 19:18 utc | 14

The question is not really what Biden will do as a lame duck. Rather it is what the Atlanticist-Deep State, who will equally be lame ducks, will do.
Posted by: dh-mtl | Jan 14 2022 18:27 utc | 6
ADS is “bipartisan”, which means that any foreseeable election outcomes in USA is OK. Additionally, there exist surprisingly strong barriers for non-ADS person to have any type of responsibility in foreign affairs and defense. We could see it quite vividly in Trump Administration: Trump himself was too wobbly to be trusted by ADS, but his administration was ADS to the hilt.

Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jan 14 2022 19:19 utc | 15

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