Folks, Biden's Presidency was almost totally lost on his withdrawal from Afghanistan *which an overwhelming number of Americans supported*. It might explain some things to understand why that was.
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During the first Trump term, reporters could roll out of bed, write a quick Mad-Lib piece on the most recent Outrage(tm) and go back to sleep, while the article racked up interactions. Rinse and repeat, write a book, collect accolades. If they had to crush a decent man to get that back, they would.
A big part of that is that Trump is the only one who tries to market himself as an anti-war candidate. Dems are too afraid of looking "weak on national security".
I have this idea that Dem policies are weakness/woman coded to Americans. Healthcare, education, and withdrawal from wars. But Trump can do it with an aesthetic of manliness like "We're gettin' outta there because fuck those people" instead of notions about peace and no one dying.
The media absolutely murdered his reputation and never gave him any credit for anything good. It wasn't just Afghanistan, but everything. I never saw a president quite so lambasted over every move. Seems like every 3 months would be a series of reports how we were on the verge of a recession.
It was doom and gloomy, doom and gloom, then story after story of him being old. The Man was bicycling around and they talked about how feeble he was. It was truly bizarre. I concluded they hated him for being boring and decent.
There was never any explanation of the reality of what Trump had agreed to on Afghanistan or anything else. No story after story of Trump freeing the Taliban. Not just a few, it was 5000. Not the secret deals now he's making to look good. Silence from the media.
If ever there were babies worth throwing out with the bathwater they are main stream inside-the-beltway reporters. I’d gladly sacrifice the few good ones for the whole lot of them getting reassigned to Kazakhstan.
I do, on the other hand, remember a lot of commentary on how low US casualties in Afghanistan had been as an argument that Biden should have stayed - without mentioning that the Taliban and US weren't fighting because the US was executing an agreed-upon withdrawal from the country.
Yes, no explanations at all. I bet 2/3rds of this country have no clue that the taliban ruling there now were freed by Trump. That the deal was brokered before Biden took office. Biden was doomed no matter what he did. He could have reneged but that would have escalated the violence.
And we already saw what happens when the US reneges on diplomatic agreements it already previously agreed to. Like setting back diplomacy with Iran back a decade minimum because of Trump Term 1.
Biden had a very tight timeline THAT WAS PUT IN PLACE BY tRUMP. Biden had no choice. He had to be on time with the agreement trump made. trump will be screwing the USA long after he dies of old age, if he ever does die.
I did the math and posted it on Twitter long ago, but to summarize, we were losing enough soldiers every month that even the “debacle” of withdrawal and the most generous estimate of attributable lives lost was quickly exceeded by the theoretical lives saved, at the rate we were suffering casualties
Those 13 soldiers killed during the August withdrawal were the only troops lost that year, and exceeded those lost the previous year. The US left Afghanistan because their citizens were incapable of understanding that 2020 was not the same war as 2011.
Entirely insane coverage of that event. The press was so mad that they could no longer play war reporter with no consequences. Thousands of people died each year there but it was the one bombing on the departure that was it.
There are STILL people who insist that this was the reason Biden was unpopular and I just think they are telling way way more on themselves than anything.
These are Acela / blob / “pundits” in the truest sense.
A failure of the electorate is a
also of the elites. If the electorate is wise, it's the fault of elites for losing their trust; if the electorate is a bunch of illiterate monkeys it's the fault of elites for not herding them right.
I don't think surveys can reliably ask how people believe a candidate or President is handling something or on their characteristics anymore. They're more answering "Who are you gonna vote for?"
He went another 10 negative and positive AFTER that.
He was naturally going to erode over that anyway.
If you ask voters now “what is Afghanistan” I doubt one in five could tell you. And I doubt one in ten Zillenials could tell you why we were in there to begin with.
There were also the photo of Biden at Camp David working on the situation, not in the WH; the strike near the airport killing innocent people; and photos and vids of the Taliban taking US military equipment.
I followed the NYT coverage of Afghanistan; US leaders stopped reporting how many provinces the Taliban occupied because it kept increasing! There were so many other signs, like the casualties amongst the old Afghan govt were higher than the Taliban on many weeks
The media wants a Saigon narrative. They never even explained why there was only one airbase remaining in the country. Because Donald Trump had already given the place up!
I have a different view. Biden's presidency was primarily lost because of inflation, just like incumbents in other countries -- regardless of being liberal or conservative -- lost because of inflation. And inflation started coming down too late in the process for people to feel it. Issue #1.
Inflation peaked two years before the election and fell steadily until the election. But that's not how the perception works, people don't see "inflation" they see prices. Inflation can have stopped entirely, but the prices remain higher than they were before inflation and people see that every day.
And adamantly refused to have it explained to them. I don't know if you tried to talk anyone off the ledge on inflation and economics issues in the fall last year, but I did. It was like shooting a nerf gun at a brick wall. Absolutely zero effect.
I previously thought "anti-incumbent sentiment elsewhere surely couldn't be a function of US politics" but then Donald Trump got elected and the favor of liberal/left parties everywhere else in the world surged, and now I'm a little less sure about that.
I think before Trump’s election people had actually come to believe the majority of inflation was due to inclusion and equity and only realized their mistake after #1 tariff stan was elected
in other words: I now think it's a possibility that the same phenomena that propelled Donald Trump to power might have global effects, and US politics have outsized influence on it, and also it might *not* be about inflation.
It is certainly the case that there has been a global resurgence of the reactionary right. You can see it in the EU, UK, Phillipines, India, etc. But I think the success rate has been mixed. In this instance, I think Harris would have won but for the inflation. 1/2
I think that's a fair point. That definitely left him with a black eye. The other big, big failure was not taking enough credit for what he was doing. They needed to be more like Bill Clinton -- get the credit.
Anyone involved with communication in the Biden White House should never work in that field again. They were absolutely terrible at getting the word out about their wins.
I get that they had a hostile relationship with legacy media, but come on!
Nothing has a single cause, but it is also undeniable that Biden's approval rating cratered during the withdrawal and never recovered. Negativity breeds negativity.
After this, you could see why the Biden Presidency was not always sure footed on foreign policy. They had been totally burned by the media and electorate.
I had a conversation recently with a vet who was furious that Biden "gave up Afghanistan" with zero awareness that, in fact, Trump signed the deal and Biden carried it out.
Did they even explain that Trump bound Biden to an outrageous withdrawal timeline by agreeing with the Taliban (he almost invited them to Camp David??)
Biden wasn't responsible for our exit from Afghanistan; Trump was and he made the deal to NOT protect our troops during this exit, worked with the devils who attacked them and killed 13 of them. Not Biden. Biden would never have agreed to release 5000 enemy ... 1
Taliban from prison, make no safeguards for the people of Afghanistan, nor our equipment or exiting troops. Biden also would not agree to put these troops in a blind alley at the airport with no way out but be trapped. Only Trump would DO ... 2
SUCH a hideous deal, because he hates this country, our military and everything we stand for. Trump is a menace to all Americans and this country, and he will surely prove it by that yuge bribe he is taking ... 3
You have the Saudis and Qataris mixed up. This is important, as Qatar is much more supportive of Islamist movements (Moslem Brotherhood, ISIS, AL Qaeda).
But as an interesting thing that makes me go "hmmm...":
The Trump Afghanistan withdrawal was agreed in Doha, Qatar. And now he gets a plane ..
I am reminded of the ones who pay the highest price there, women. We had to get out, but wow was it devastating to watch the Dark Ages return to that place.
The shuttering of USAID was the media’s opportunity to play this role with Trump, after all, he’s sentencing millions of people to death and the visuals were there. But they shrugged instead, probably because it’s not a war, and therefore, isn’t a serious issue for them to puff their chests about.
You can't really do Operator® cosplay in ghost villages of HIV positive children who had their treatments illegally withheld by the genocidal white supremacist regime you have to suck up to for the precious access your 2030 book depends on.
We should have known in that moment that the jig was up.
The press made hay of the Afghanistan withdraw for months, then they made hay of "We're going to have a recession!" for months, then they made hay of "He's so old!" for [checksnotes] they're still doing it.
The solution is dems need to insult the press directly; they do the standard "what if Obama/clinton/Biden did this" tweet once in a while, but that does not work. We need someone to say why Signalgate is covered less than Hilary's email or be mad about how they said a recession was going to happen.
The GOP has Murdoch and crew to control news for them. Buckle up Buckaroos. It is time to "Git 'er done". This is designed to sweep them all from power, pronto. Time to scare the GOP to #impeach, or else. Here are the keys to ending this nightmare quickest. Eyes Wide Open. https://bsky.app/profile/sevenstarhand.bsky.social/post/3lp657rmmec2j
paul walker died just far back enough to avoid being included in (the obviously fake version of) the epstein files.
there was some light age discourse about him & his partner at the time of his death, though.
If there's no shit to be mad about (99 percent of the time), our media will make shit up to be mad about and be *even madder* for having had to go through the hassle of making up the shit they're mad about. 🫠
Fox News can create a scandal, like Obama's tan suit, and because they're the most watched news network on cable the rest of the networks have to comment on it.
I think fewer scandals is better, but the press has to pay the bills.
What I'm saying is that fewer scandals means each one gets more air time and more individual attention than when there's a new scandal every day of the week.
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They were nimble. Adaptive and sensible. They didn't cling to a premade plan.
In other words, they did a good job!
But then couldn't defend themselves in public
Especially when mainstream media senses an opportunity to throw liberal meat to Republicans.
It was a challenge made profoundly greater by Biden's inability to create so much as any public presence.
We went from " a president you don't have to think about" to " wait who's the president?"
63 Troops die in pointlessly continued Afghani war: 😴
13 Troops die in massive withdrawal, ending pointless war once and for all: 🤬😡🤬😤😖🤬😡🤬😤😖🤬😡🤬😤😖🤬😡🤬😤😖🤬😡🤬😤😖🤬😡🤬😤😖🤬😡🤬😤😖🤬😡🤬😤😖🤬😡🤬😤😖🤬😡🤬😤😖
4 troops die in accident and the president has no clue and then skips out on honoring them to golf: 😴
And we're still in Korea.
These are Acela / blob / “pundits” in the truest sense.
Since I went looking; I found these Pew survey results one year ago. One. Year. Ago.
I don’t think democracy works.
also of the elites. If the electorate is wise, it's the fault of elites for losing their trust; if the electorate is a bunch of illiterate monkeys it's the fault of elites for not herding them right.
When the students suck you blame the teachers.
Like. What are we even doing here.
If I was a journalist I would kill myself for thinking the enterprise worthless.
He was naturally going to erode over that anyway.
If you ask voters now “what is Afghanistan” I doubt one in five could tell you. And I doubt one in ten Zillenials could tell you why we were in there to begin with.
I get that they had a hostile relationship with legacy media, but come on!
Competent government doesn’t allow them to entertain anyone
But as an interesting thing that makes me go "hmmm...":
The Trump Afghanistan withdrawal was agreed in Doha, Qatar. And now he gets a plane ..
The press made hay of the Afghanistan withdraw for months, then they made hay of "We're going to have a recession!" for months, then they made hay of "He's so old!" for [checksnotes] they're still doing it.
I'm tired, boss.
CNN has Democrat derangement syndrome.
January 2021, reporters were complaining that their podcast and subscription numbers dropped off immediately after the election.
That's when "dosomething twitter" started, to drive numbers back to their podcasts and news by pretending that Biden wasn't doing anything
Remember Signalgate? How many scandals have there been since Signalgate? A dozen? Two dozen?
Hillary Clinton had a private email server and the press talked about it nonstop for two years.
https://bsky.app/profile/sevenstarhand.bsky.social/post/3lp657rmmec2j
the fast 'n furious thing.
there was some light age discourse about him & his partner at the time of his death, though.
Fox News is always the elephant in the room.
What I'm saying is that fewer scandals means each one gets more air time and more individual attention than when there's a new scandal every day of the week.