President Joe Biden’s sagging approval ratings and apparently inability to appear as if he’s having a positive impact on the myriad problems affecting the country has left both him and his closest confidantes frustrated amid extremely low morale in the West Wing.
According to Politico, Mr Biden and his aides have found themselves “either limited or helpless” to “combat the forces pummelling them,” including inflation, rising gas and diesel fuel prices, a rash of mass shootings which Congress appears unwilling to address, and Russia’s continuing war in Ukraine.
Mr Biden and his inner circle reportedly fear his term is increasingly looking more and more like that of Jimmy Carter, the last Democratic president to serve a single term after becoming mired in stagflation, brought about in part by the Arab-led oil embargo, and foreign policy disasters such as the Iran hostage crisis.
The president is also reportedly upset at his aides’ tendency to cloister him by limiting his public appearances. While Mr Biden’s slim public schedule was once justified by the need to demonstrate best practices amid a pandemic, plans are afoot in the West Wing for the president to hit the road with a series of public appearances, starting with a trip to California for this year’s Summit of the Americas.
The president will make one such public appearance on Wednesday when he sits down with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, the late-night host announced on Sunday.
The White House is also hoping Mr Biden will be able to go on offense against a Republican Party he has recently taken to painting as rife with extremists and out of touch with mainstream American values.
But much of what affects Mr Biden’s prospects for re-election are out of his hands, particularly when it comes to inflation and how far Russia chooses to press its’ offensive against Ukrainian forces.
“It’s something that has bedeviled quite a few previous presidents. Lots of things happen on your watch but it doesn’t mean there is a magic wand to fix it,” said Robert Gibbs, who served as President Barack Obama’s first press secretary. “The limits of the presidency are not well grasped. The responsibility of the president is greater than the tools he has to fix it.”
