With the 2024 election looming Joe Biden’s handlers know full well how unpopular he is. But they have a plan to get him reelected anyway.
They are praying for the Republicans to nominate Trump and they are beginning the process of sporadically positioning Biden towards the center. Is it a legit move to ideologically mitigate what has been up to now a hard left administration? No.
But with Trump, given his recent clumsy stabs at DeSantis, still operating with his polarizing modus operandi the Dems think the voters may prefer a seemingly center left senile hack over a drama queen. At this point, hard to tell. But for the Dems, it’s all they have.
Proof of the Biden crawl rightwards are evidenced in two recent developments. His signing of a bill that overturns a hard left pro-crime bill promulgated by the DC City Council and his administration’s green light on the Willow Oil Project.
Biden was praised by Republicans for his DC stand. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called it a halt of a “soft-on-crime criminal code rewrite that treated violent criminals like victims and discarded the views of law enforcement.”
Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia called it a “major first step to restoring law and order in our nation’s capital city.” True enough, but also grist for Biden’s mill. Even better for the present chief executive are hard left Dems complaining about Biden.
“DC has a right to govern itself, like any other state or municipality. If the President supports DC statehood, he should govern like it. Plenty of places pass laws the President may disagree with. He should respect the people’s gov of DC just as he does elsewhere.” That’s from AOC.
Another hard left Dem House member, “It’s disappointing for me and anybody who believes in home rule, honestly. I’m a former mayor of a city of 70,000, and I wouldn’t want the federal government coming in and telling me what city ordinances to pass. … So I think it’s disappointing in that context.” This kind of stuff will be used as proof hard left Dems consistently disagree with Biden. See! Presto! Biden the moderate.
With gas prices high and American energy policy in tatters, both because of Biden, he throws a bone to common sense on the Willow Oil Project.
Former Texas Governor and Energy Secretary Rick Perry puts the issue in context, “Alaska’s Willow Project has been years in the making, and it is representative of the hindered potential of the thousands of outstanding or rejected leases under an administration at war with fossil fuels. The project has the potential to produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day and generate between $8 billion and $17 billion in new tax revenue, much of which will dampen the blow of rampant federal spending, and create 2,800 jobs, 300 of which will be permanent.” Biden let this one pass while he’s killed other more important energy producing initiatives like the Keystone Pipeline. Gee, what a centrist.
You’ll see more of this coming up in Biden’s attempt to triangulate. If the Republicans are smart they’ll nail him on his real record. However, if they get distracted by drama, a damaged nominee, or superfluous issues then Biden may get what we wants and the nation will continue to have a hard left president who occasionally pretends to be a moderate.