Don't blame Joe Manchin for Joe Biden's clear lack of a mandate

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/dont-blame-joe-manchin-for-joe-
bidens-clear-lack-of-a-
mandate?utm_campaign=article_rail&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=article_r
ail

"Same nonsense that Manchin has been talking about for a year," Sen.
Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said of Joe Manchin's (D-WV) concerns about
inflation. Sanders added later, "In my humble opinion, you know, Manchin
represents the very wealthiest people in this country, not working
families in West Virginia or America."

This exchange, which came Sunday during an interview on ABC's This Week,
just shows how far from reality Sanders is. For one thing, it would be an
act of cruelty to Biden to enact his agenda at this point. The last thing
the economy needs at a time of 9% inflation is another multi-trillion
dollar spending package financed by borrowing. The last thing it needs is
even higher energy prices thanks to fantasy-land energy policies of the
environmental Left. Either of these supposed accomplishments would surely
cost Biden his majorities in both houses of Congress, to say nothing of
his party's fortunes down-ballot.

But beyond that, it's also wrong-headed to focus on Manchin as the culprit
for Biden's failures.

First of all, depending on which agenda item we're discussing, there are
51 or 52 senators who oppose Biden's agenda, not just one. That is not
Manchin's fault, it is the fault of President Biden's narrow, no-coattails
victory in November 2020.

President Donald Trump, you may recall, won the Electoral College and the
White House in 2016 based on a margin of just 77,744 votes in three key
states. By that standard — the one that counts — Biden won an even
narrower victory in 2020 based on a combined margin of only about 44,000
votes in three key states.

That same day, Democrats actually lost ground in state-level elections,
dropping two state legislative chambers and one governorship. Democrats in
the U.S. House saw their comfortable 36-seat majority shrink down to an
uncomfortable nine-seat edge. As for the Senate, only Georgia's peculiar
general election runoff rules saved Biden by allowing Jon Ossoff to win a
seat in January instead of losing it in November. This is how Biden, by
the skin of his fingernails, obtained the current 50-50 Senate tie, which
Biden's vice president can break in party-line votes.

In short, Biden came into office with no ideological mandate. It made a
lot of sense at the time. After four chaotic years, voters opted for the
man who had run as a moderate Democrat, prepared to return to normalcy.
Sure, Biden was going to be a Democrat, but he was going to represent the
sane wing of his party — to manage a closely-divided nation based on
political consensus.

Biden is now the most unpopular president in history precisely because he
ignored this. He arrogantly behaves now as if he won a clear mandate in
2020 to make enormous changes. He jumped to impose environmentalist
restrictions on fossil fuels; he has signed massive spending increases
causing devastating inflation; he has proposed further spending increases;
he has proposed massive tax increases; he has deliberately sabotaged the
operational control of the Mexican border that had been hard-won under
Trump; he has pushed for legislation that would permanently cement
permanent everywhere-any-time abortions; he has at times threatened to
knock down checks against his own power, such as the filibuster and the
nine-justice Supreme Court.

And of course, the foreign policy failures, though mostly non-ideological
in nature, have been epic. Biden's numbers began to tumble with his
disastrous, chaotic, lethal failure in Afghanistan, and he has only fallen
further in the time since. None of this is Manchin's fault. Indeed,
Manchin is probably saving Biden from himself right now.

This is the true reason Biden cannot accomplish anything. Any Democrat who
wants to survive this fall understands the need to put as much distance
between himself and this doddering old fool as possible. Biden's approval
numbers show his brand to be politically toxic beyond anything Trump or
Barack Obama faced in their first midterms. Approval-wise, he is roughly
on par with where President George W. Bush was in July 2006, after Katrina
put his presidency on the ropes ahead of his disastrous second midterm.

Either way, Sanders is in no position to blame Manchin.



--
"LOCKDOWN", left-wing COVID fearmongering. 95% of COVID infections
recover with no after effects.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Donald J. Trump, cheated out of a second term by fraudulent "mail-in"
ballots. Report voter fraud: sf.n...@mail.house.gov

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.