The Washington Examiner recently reported that Joe Biden is on course to spend more time away from the White House than any of his recent predecessors.  Biden has spent more than a quarter of his first year in office in Delaware, typically on weekends, and has continued that trend in year two.

Biden has spent an estimated 188 full or partial days away from the White House, with 130 spent at his Delaware properties, 52 at Camp David, and six in Nantucket.

If that pace holds, Biden will spend roughly 553 days away from the White House over his first term.

How does this record compare to previous U.S. presidents?

President Donald Trump spent 381 days away from the White House while in office.  Obama spent 328 days away during his tenure, while George W. Bush spent 1,020 days away from the White House for his two terms.  Bill Clinton was away for 345 days during his tenure.

These numbers are irrelevant, perhaps, because the burden of the presidency always prevails, irrespective of the physical location.

Vacations must never be scoffed at.  All humans, irrespective of the job they do, deserve a break from their daily rigmarole.  A weekend getaway or an occasional vacation for a week or two is needed to refresh the mind and body.

For a president, spending time away from Washington often provides valuable time to ponder complex issues and contemplate innovative solutions.  A change of location often lends a fresh perspective.  It also provides an opportunity to interact freely with advisers in a relaxed atmosphere without being suited and booted and away from the prying eyes of the press.

The problem isn't only that Biden is spending time away from Washington; the problem is also what he does in Washington.

When in the White House, Biden usually has few events scheduled on his calendar.  These typically are meet-and-greets with foreign leaders.  There are also scripted live addresses.  Biden is frequently late for live events, often by even an hour.  When he does read his teleprompter, he sounds as if he is just discovering not just the content, but new words.  He often whispers, mumbles, and sounds incoherent.

Biden is seldom subjected to impromptu interactions with the press.  There have also been situations where the press is rudely ejected from the Oval Office as it is asking questions of Biden.

Upon taking office, Biden pledged to be more transparent about the activities within the White House.  The White House publishes a daily log of visitors.  Can this log be trusted to be fully transparent?  We know the answer to that.

However, the New York Post reported that the same openness doesn't apply to Biden's home in Delaware.  No visitor logs are published.

This is particularly concerning owing to the Biden family's record of shady business dealings in China and Ukraine.  Equally concerning is Hunter Biden's amateur artworks receiving astronomical sums from anonymous foreign buyers.  It is common knowledge that art sales have been among the primary methods for money laundering.

The question remains: are other shady deals being struck in Delaware?  Is national interest being compromised for the Bidens' gain?  Who is meeting with Biden or his handlers in Delaware?  We may never know.

The lack of transparency of the activities when Biden is away from the White House is more worrying than Biden merely being away.

We now focus on Biden's output.

If the U.S. were prospering and the world were at peace, nobody would begrudge Biden even if he made Delaware his full-time residence.  But alas, that is emphatically not the case.  Since Biden took office, the citizenry has been subjected to one unprecedented crisis after another.

The struggle begins with economic woes.  Inflation in the U.S. is at a 40-year high, resulting in soaring costs of living.  Just last month, unemployment rose to 5.950 million.

Those who are employed and can afford to survive the record inflation are suffering due to the supply chain crisis.  Even infants have not been spared due to a shortage of baby formula.  

Biden has also failed to protect the homeland.  The U.S. border is almost unguarded, leading to a considerable influx of illegal migrants and large-scale trafficking of illicit narcotics such as fentanyl.

The crime wave is rampant with shootings, and gang violence is becoming a frequent occurrence.

Beyond the U.S., Biden's disgracefully hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan left that country volatile.  It doubtless emboldened Russia to intervene militarily in Ukraine and China to make aggressive overtures toward Taiwan.

Biden frequently makes reckless claims, which the White House has to walk back later. 

Overall, Biden has made the U.S. appear as an empire on the verge of drastic decline.  He has also made the U.S. appear to be an unreliable and uncaring ally.

An objective study of presidential history may reveal Joe Biden to be among the worst, if not the worst U.S. president in modern times. 

Sometimes incompetent people can appear competent if they surround themselves with able people.  As Victor Davis Hanson observed, the only common factors to all Biden appointees are ideological rigidity, nonchalance, and sheer incompetence.  Biden's failed presidency may be at a point of no return.

The only area where Biden is on track to surpass all previous presidents is spending time away from the White House.

Taking repeated vacations while performing poorly at the job resulting in the suffering of citizens also makes Biden appear like an insensitive Nero-like figure. 

Biden's easy schedule in the White House and his frequent absence prove what is obvious to everybody: Biden's rapidly declining cognitive abilities have left him incapable of functioning as president.  Those running the show prefer to have him behind closed doors or at faraway locations. The less Biden is seen, the safer they feel.  This is exactly how they ran Biden's presidential campaign.

This is nothing short of outrageous.  The U.S. shouldn't be a third-world totalitarian regime where a compromised puppet is installed via rigged elections while the Deep State runs the country by proxy.

In a democracy, supreme power is owned by citizens, which they lend to their leaders in Washington.  As owners of the power, citizens have a right to know who is using their power to run their country and who is responsible for all the decisions that have placed them in unprecedented peril.

Photo credit: Marco Verch, CC BY 2.0 license.