Joe Biden was a terrible president no matter his age, and Dems still have to answer for it

Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race solves one problem, and one problem only, for Democrats: Age.

Senility was only ever the cherry on top of an ice cream sundae of catastrophe that was Biden’s failed presidency.

On every topic — the economy, foreign policy, social issues — his administration has let America down. That won’t be fixed by him stepping aside.

Long before Biden’s zombie-eyed performance in a national debate, a majority of Americans decided he wasn’t up to the job of commander in chief.

His most recent Gallup approval rating is a dismal 38%. Way back in 2022, a year into his term, it was . . . 38%. The rot runs deep.

Kamala Harris, the likely nominee, may brag that she can use the tall steps on Air Force One. But in every other way, she owns, and is responsible for, these Democratic disasters.

It’s highly unlikely the party will run against the Biden record, and would have no credibility if they did. So if you’re proposing a continuation of the Biden legacy, how do you defend it?

Biden came into office at the end of the pandemic. Operation Warp Speed had developed vaccines faster than anyone thought possible, and the country was opening up again. People were ready to go on vacation, go out to eat, travel. 

The president decided what the moment needed was more stimulus, free cash for everyone, and a massive bill chockablock with progressive programs meant to keep even more Americans dependent on the federal government.

Not surprisingly, inflation skyrocketed. You can’t spend that much money and not expect the market to respond. By 2022, the average rate of inflation was 8%, levels not seen since the early 1980s.

Biden would spend the rest of his presidency lying about all this. He claims he came into office when COVID was raging (it wasn’t, the first vaccine was given in December 2020, and most Americans were given the shot before he took the oath), that inflation was already high (it was 1.2%) and that he “created” millions of jobs (with COVID over, companies started hiring again; it would take more than two years to recover all the jobs lost during the pandemic).

Getting a nice raise would have softened the blow, but Biden had a plan to make sure that didn’t happen.

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The latest on President Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race:

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He rescinded all Trump-era policies at the border, and has let in at least 10 million people illegally — flooding the job market and driving down the cost of labor. Not to mention adding an enormous burden on taxpayers from Texas to New York.

This particular millstone hangs heavy on Harris. She was made the “border czar,” a job she soon ignored.

People were waved in with the flimsiest of asylum claims. We must solve the “root causes,” Harris claimed, making exactly one trip to Central America. Then . . . nothing.

Venezuela is still a kleptocracy. Haiti is in chaos. Mexico doesn’t care about securing the border. Now more migrants are coming from as far-flung places as Tajikistan. So many root causes, and none of them given a thought by Kamala Harris.

WIth the economy and the border doing so well, Biden turned his attention to Afghanistan, or didn’t really.

Rather than come up with a plan to safely evacuate our forces, US civilians and our Afghan allies, the US let the Taliban march through Kabul, then oversaw a horror-film mob scene at the airport that culminated in the deaths of 13 American soldiers.

Biden honored the return of their bodies by looking at his watch. At the debate last month, he spat on their memories by claiming no troops had died during his term. It is Biden’s most shameful chapter.

On the international front, Biden continued to appease Iran, which responded by funding terror groups, killing more Americans troops the president won’t acknowledge, and sponsoring a deadly terror attack by Hamas against Israel.

He gave Ukraine just enough aid to hold their own but not turn the tide. He wandered away from NATO gatherings as China plotted a new hegemony. 

Domestically, his signature legislation was a con and a lie. The lie was its name: The Inflation Reduction Act did nothing to lower inflation.

The con was how Biden claimed to holdout Sen. Joe Manchin that it would have a balanced energy policy. It didn’t.

It was billions in green subsidies that will drive up the cost of gasoline, fund loser companies and do about as good for both the environment and budgeting as setting a stack of cash on fire.

The “defender of democracy” regularly tried to disregard the will of Congress, the courts and the people with his own executive actions.

He transferred the cost of student loans to taxpayers. He forced girl’s sports teams to accept biological males. He got rid of work requirements for welfare.

All are being legally challenged, and when they fail, Democrats will claim the courts are biased for not allowing Biden to be a king. 

This is why Biden is unpopular. This is why he’s down in the polls. Biden was going to lose the election not because he’s an “elderly man with a bad memory,” as the special counsel memorably noted. He was losing because he’s been a terrible president.

Changing nominees to Kamala Harris or whichever teeth-whitened governor wants to blow up the convention does nothing to change that.

In fact, it may even exacerbate it, as Harris is further to the left than Biden on many issues. It’s just failure with a new face.