Don't Expect Anything New From Biden's State of the Union Speech

    

   After watching Pres. Biden's Thursday speech, it's clear that he is not boldly leading the Western response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This is, of course, in the context that it doesn't appear he is running his own administration's policy on anything. Every policy and act that they have taken has no connection to any position he has previously taken over his long Senate career. He seems to be a figurehead that goes out and clumsily justifies whatever policy his top advisors come up with. Given all that, he did a reasonable impression of a president. Not a President of the United States, or a global leader, but maybe the president of a supporting ally.

   Pres. Biden is wholly unequipped to deal with Pres. Putin's actions in Ukraine, and it's been evident for some time. The Afghanistan fiasco probably was the clearest signal to Putin that this was the best time to continue his aggression against Ukraine. Of course, there were domestic Russian politics that pushed Putin's hand, as well, but the fecklessness of the US leadership had to be a factor in his decision. Whatever "team" is running US policy in Biden's name has demonstrated a ham-handed ineptness at foreign policy, especially defense.

   Pres. Biden is not, and never has been a leader, even before the obvious mental decline since his Senate days. He held various leadership roles in the Senate, but that is quite different than executive leadership. In 2008, I thought he was the least bad of the Democrat candidates, because he had compromised on so many things over his career. Also, he seemed easiest for the GOP to beat, but with the economy crashing, it really was the Democrat's election to lose. Of course, he went on to become Pres. Obama's VP, but not his immediate successor. There are several credible factors why: his son's death in 2015, and the toll it took on his mental health, Hillary Clinton's rabid ambition for the presidency, and as Pres. Obama would later advise in 2020, "Joe's ability to fuck things up."

   Even average political leaders, when faced with big challenges and negative polls, will change course, and even compromise on some policies to achieve others. It doesn't always work, but a leader makes these tough decisions. When an administration is run by a group of far-left ideologues, there is no leader to suggest a different direction, or decide which policies are best to compromise on. This has been a hallmark of the Biden administration, and a major reason for concern regarding national security and international relations.

   Even as Russia and China are coming together with Iran in a much more threatening version of the "Axis of Evil" than Pres. Bush faced, the Biden administration people are still out there saying that the biggest threats our nation faces are white supremacy, global climate change, Trump supporters, and parents who object to school curricula. Right now, the Ukraine war is raging, with wall to wall coverage over all US news outlets, and Pres. Biden's team is doing their best to exploit it. What they are NOT doing is leading our allies by bold action, such as cutting off Russian access to SWIFT, because this would cause some disruption to many nations that do business with Russia. The WSJ has a good explanation of it here. Whether it's a good idea or not, it would be bold, and be a tough leadership decision.

   There have been many opportunities to deter Russia in a bold way, over the past weeks and months. To hear the US President say "we'll see now what effect they'll have," as Russian boots are on the ground, killing Ukrainians, is a day late, and a dollar short, to use an old expression. Of course, we can't commit troops there, nor should we. The truth is we shouldn't even have had to send troops to our NATO allies in the region now, after the invasion. Bold leadership could have avoided this whole situation.

   Pres. Putin and Pres. Xi are taking Pres. Biden's measure. They are obviously consulting with each other on how boldly they can go against Western and US interests. By now, they know that Biden is a non-entity, and that it is a team of progressive ideologues running things. This is why Xi's negotiators berated Biden's people about "human rights" in the US, at the Alaska summit. They know exactly how to exploit classic progressive hatred of America, and our system of government. If Senator Biden from 20 years ago saw what happened there, I guarantee he would have a harsh reaction. Pres. Biden said he was "proud" of his team. Good night, Joe.

   Whatever the outcome of the war in Ukraine, it has again exposed the failure of the Biden team's foreign policy leadership. Right now, I expect the Biden team to use the Ukraine conflict to distract people from his multiple policy failures in the forthcoming State of the Union address. The more time he wastes blabbing about Putin and Ukraine, the less time he can gaslight the public about the Southern border crisis and fentanyl deaths, the collapse of his unconstitutional "equity" agenda, the soaring crime rates in Democrat-run cities and communities across the nation, thanks to progressive policies and prosecutors that ignore the laws they swore to uphold, not to mention the inflation that is destroying the finances of middle and lower earning Americans. I can't wait to see how he squares rising gas and electric costs with his war on fossil fuels, but I suspect he'll just double down, and say we need tax money to subsidize wind and solar energy more than ever. He has a lot of bad things to answer for, that all happened under his watch. However, the people responsible are not the ones standing in the Capitol. They get to write insulting talking points that often sound like "Who are you going to believe, me, or your lying eyes?" when the President delivers them.

   No, there will be nothing new, no change of direction or policy in Pres. Biden's first State of the Union speech. He will rail against Pres. Putin, and say that all of his domestic policies are absolute successes, and we're all on our way to prosperity, once we tax the rich enough to pay everyone a subsidy to give them a "living wage," or some such nonsense. In fact, I expect him to double, or even triple down on the progressive themes that his "team" swears by. Real world consequences mean nothing to them, because they face no repercussions for Biden's failures.

   I almost feel bad for him, except that he's always been a fraud, even for a politician. Still, I don't think he has any deeper understanding about what's going on. He really doesn't understand why his polls are tanking, and people yell "Let's Go, Brandon" at him. He seems like an aging rock star that has back up musicians play all of his music at shows, while he stands there and mouths the words into a dead microphone. I feel worse for all of us, who have to deal with the fact that he was elected into the office of the POTUS, and that has customarily been "the leader of the free world." God help us all.