Joe Biden is a tired product of politics - nothing more

Donald Forbes writes that President Biden is a product of the politics he has been involved in for the last half century, and his uninspiring demeanor is doing him no favours whatsoever.

One of the depressing things about Joe Biden is that he is a pure product of politics. Half a century devoted entirely to the pursuit of votes and office must shrivel whatever humanity a man is born with. There is no sign Biden ever had the time or the breadth of imagination to read a book for pleasure. Now he is a physical and mental shadow of his mediocre heyday, a wind-up toy pointed this way and that by advisors who have their own agendas and whichever political current is strongest on his side of the political tracks which at the moment is the progressive left.

What are we to make of a president who cannot read a text coherently and promises to sign legislation one day and says he will veto it the next because Nancy Pelosi jumped him? This actually happened. Bipartisan senators in Congress agreed a deal to pass an infrastructure spending deal which Biden said he would sign. He then blindsided everyone by saying he would veto it unless it was twinned with a second spending bill which he knew Republicans resolutely oppose. He backtracked but it was a startling moment of confusion.

What are we to make of a media who say there is nothing unusual about a man falling three times while climbing a single flight of stairs, all on television? Obviously such a media think no one is able to deduce that had a Republican president suffered the same mishap, there would not have been a hullabaloo. They seem to believe voters are either stupid or so biased that they care only about political affiliation.

What are we to make of the Democratic party which made such a man its contender for the world's most powerful office; or of his wife who allowed it to happen and now has to nurse him through the job? Whenever she is out sight, Biden asks, "where's Jill?"

The answer to all of these 'what are we to make of' questions is narrative. What the voter sees in front of him is just an illusion until packaged as a narrative that is repeated so many times in so many places that it becomes a truth.

A perfect example of narrative at work has been provided by another Biden, his son Hunter, a self-acknowledged drug addict who has been accused along with his father of dubious financial dealings with American and Chinese business partners. Hunter published a whitewashing autobiography after this became public and called it 'Beautiful Things'. Beauty is now a synonym for sleaze. The book's cover shows a little boy holding daddy's hand. So sweet.

Our own eyes and ears tell us Biden is incompetent and too old; the pundits tell us we are wrong. The narrative is that he is a reincarnation of FDR and the amount of money he wants to spend expanding government and entitlements proves it. The purpose of narrative is to make us believe that what is false is true. It is make-believe as in a charade and there is a lot of the smell and feel of charade in the present interactions between the White House and the Congress and between the political parties, all of whom are in thrall to the 2022 midterm elections.

At the moment, no one is sure who will vote for what in Congress. Who will betray his party and its vital interests? What will be the personal cost of betrayal or remaining loyal? What manoeuvring is achievable to squeeze disputed objectives past the roadblocks? If the Democrats keep their House majority in 2022 and win one in the Senate, it will break the logjam; Biden will be signing bills to radically change America, the Congress and the Supreme Court as fast as if they were autographs. If the Republicans gain congressional majorities, Joe will be like the statues of the Virgin carried at St Patrick's Day parades – a symbol.

Biden looks as predictably improbable today sitting as an onlooker in the White House as he did when he was as a candidate, while mainstream media pretend that he is a president like any other. He himself occasionally claims he intends to run for a second term, not that anyone thinks he is serious.

So far, the bold domestic and foreign policy promises the Democrats made at the beginning of the year have come to nothing, unless the toppling of Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel's prime minister can be counted an indirect success because his successor is keener to cooperate with Democrats.

America Is Back, the chosen counter to Donald Trump's Make America Great Again, is a bad joke with Biden at the helm. America Is Floundering more like.

Not to panic though. Kamala is lady-in-waiting.