Biden's Self-inflicted Failure

Should Have Been A Bridge

Joseph R. Biden is the third American President in recent history to sabotage his own legacy.

Biden was elected four years ago to get rid of Donald Trump, restore decency and integrity to the White House and serve as a bridge to the future. He was achieving all three, while running up other impressive achievements, until his ill-fated decision last year to seek reelection.

Now Trump is back, many of these achievements will be undone, the bridge to the future is fogged in and with the pardon of his son, which later I will uncomfortably defend, he has lost the integrity mantle.

Like Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, this President leaves office under a cloud.

LBJ changed America with his historic civil rights measures. His Great Society did more good, like Medicare, than not. But he became ensnared in a senseless war in Vietnam which forced him to leave office, broken, and which tarnished his legacy.
Nixon actually had impressive domestic achievements; for instance, he created the Environmental Protection Agency. With the notable exception of prolonging the Vietnam War, he had a good foreign policy record, especially the opening to China. But his paranoia led to criminal acts which forced him out of office.

Biden, who ran a remarkably honest administration, forgot his Presidential raison d'etre was as a bridge after the Trump nightmare. That's why he won the nomination and the Presidency in 2020.
The White House misread the better-than-expected Democratic showing in the 2022 off-year elections as a Biden vindication; it was no such thing. It was driven by reaction to the Supreme Court's crackdown on abortions.