What do you do when you are down in the RCP average of polls?  He is at 43, a good number if you are competing for the home run lead but a terrible approval number.

Can he turn this around?  Not in the short run.  He is a victim of a couple of executive orders penned early on.  He lost the presidency within hours of inauguration, sort of like the starting pitcher who gives up six runs in the first inning and hopes his team can get back in the game.

First, he declared war on oil — a stupid decision, given that there is no real alternative to fossil fuels.  The result was higher prices.  Second, he ended the Trump border policies, and that just put a welcome sign on the U.S.-Mexico border.  Naturally, gasoline prices went up, and so did the number of people entering illegally in the middle of a pandemic.

Was he hoping foolishly for a different result, or did he listen too much to the left? No matter what, Susan Glasser, normally a booster, has this first year about right:

Biden, it is now clear, promised what he couldn't deliver in a nation divided against itself. He trafficked in hope that was arguably as misleading in its own way as Trump's lies. More than four hundred thousand Americans have died of covid since Trump left office — many of them because they refused to get a free, lifesaving vaccine. More than two-thirds of Republicans to this day refuse to accept that Biden is the legitimately elected President, preferring Trump's Big Lie to the uncomfortable truth of his defeat. There is no restoration possible in such a country.

No restoration in sight for sure.  Like many on her side, Glasser tries to blame it on Trump, or what she calls the "big election lie" or Republicans who did not get the vaccine.  Of course, she forgets that Kamala Harris ran for V.P. saying she'd never take the Trump vaccine.  She also forgets that no one would be talking about the last election if the country were happy with the Biden administration.

No matter what, it's been a horrible year for President Biden. It all started when he chose to govern like Bernie Sanders rather than the moderate we were promised.

Who knows what the first Tuesday of November will bring?  Probably very bad news along with the first Tuesday of every month of 2022.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).

Image: Pixabay.