Let the Pre-Criminations Begin: NBC "News" Interviews White House Staffers and Discovers That Joe Biden Is a Very Cranky Old Man Who's Blaming His Staff For His Disastrous First (and Only) Term

Before getting to that -- and it's worth getting to -- I'll note that Biden's approval rating has fallen to 34% in the latest Civiqs poll, and, interestingly, he's underwater in 47 of the 50 states (57 according to the Greatest Intellect On Earth).

He's actually underwater in California. And his home state of Delaware, which is one of the most Democrat states in the world. Two cobalt blue states where a Democrat would have to murder a child (outside of her womb) to get a negative approval rating.

There are only three states where Biden's approval is above water:

* Hawaii: 50 percent approval, 40 percent disapproval
* Massachusetts: 45 percent approval, 42 percent disapproval
* Vermont: 46 percent approval, 38 percent disapproval

In California, he's at 42 percent approval, 46 percent disapproval. In Delaware, he's at 35 percent approval, 53 percent disapproval.

Ooof. I just double-checked that to make sure it was right. On my check, it looks slightly wrong: in Delaware, he's at 36% (not 35%) approval, and 53% disapproval. Maybe these numbers change daily.

Obviously, that is a horrible, horrible number for one of the most Democrat states in the universe and Biden's home state.

See the link for the full state-by-state breakdown.

The poll showed Biden's job approval is back down to 34 percent, down from the 35 percent earlier in the month with the respondents. The poll also showed that the president has a 55 percent disapproval, while ten percent have no opinion.

Overall, Biden has a net approval of negative 21.

Additionally, Biden is underwater with independent respondents -- one of the blocs in the country that have become increasingly important to win elections over the years. Only 22 percent of independent respondents say they approve of Biden, while 65 percent disapprove, with 13 percent having no opinion.

So that's the situation, which you already knew.

The magnitude of Joe Biden's failures is now so large that even Joe Biden is beginning to grasp it. That's how big a thing this is. Even f'n' Joe Biden gets it now.

He now realizes that the midterms will be a historic repudiation, and that 2024 will probably be one as well.

And that he will go down as a worse President than Jimmy Carter.

So that means it's time for Pre-criminations. It's time for Joe Biden to start trashing his staff and blaming them for his failures.

You know, like a stand-up guy with good character, as was promised us by NeverTrump, would do.

Faced with a worsening political predicament, President Joe Biden is pressing aides for a more compelling message and a sharper strategy while bristling at how they've tried to stifle the plain-speaking persona that has long been one of his most potent assets.

Biden is rattled by his sinking approval ratings and is looking to regain voters' confidence that he can provide the sure-handed leadership he promised during the campaign, people close to the president say.

...

Amid a rolling series of calamities, Biden's feeling lately is that he just can't catch a break. "Biden is frustrated. If it's not one thing, it's another," said a person close to the president.

Yeah it's called being president. If you weren't expecting difficulties, then you're a clownish idiot whose IQ is firmly in the subnormal range.

Oh wait we already knew that.

An assumption baked into Biden's candidacy was that he would preside over a smoothly running administration by dint of his decades of experience in public office.

A lot of us didn't assume that.

The people who assumed that were the increasingly poorly-specified The Smartest Guys in Any Room.

Yet there are signs of managerial breakdowns that have angered both him and his party.

The article reports that current Chief of Staff Ron Klain is expected to depart the White House after the midterms meltdown.

One of the likely replacements? Harvey Weinstein PR fixer Anita Dunn.

Here we go, pre-criminations time, time for Biden to start throwing his staff under the bus:

Biden is annoyed that he wasn't alerted sooner about the baby formula shortage and that he got his first briefing in the past month, even though the crisis had long been in the making. (The White House didn't specify when Biden got his first briefing on the formula shortage.)

Someone failed to position Biden for success!!!

Here's the bit that has a lot of people talking: Biden is angry that, after he makes a colossal gaffe that could start World War III (like announcing that the United States supports a policy of regime change in Russia -- "My God, this man cannot remain in power"), his staff rushes out to contradict him and to say that Biden never said that at all and that if he did say it, he meant something else, and also you're a racist for hearing it wrong in the first place.

Beyond policy, Biden is unhappy about a pattern that has developed inside the West Wing. He makes a clear and succinct statement -- only to have aides rush to explain that he actually meant something else. The so-called clean-up campaign, he has told advisers, undermines him and smothers the authenticity that fueled his rise. Worse, it feeds a Republican talking point that he's not fully in command.

LOL. It almost makes it look like he's just a feeble puppet and that policy decisions are being made behind the scenes by unnamed persons no one ever voted for, and when this senile figurehead breaks with their bureaucratic consensus, they veto him.

It almost seems like that.

Almost.

Asked about the staff's practice of clarifying Biden's remarks, the official said: "We don't say anything that the president doesn't want us to say."

Well, that doesn't appear true. After Biden announced that Putin must not be allowed to remain power, Jen Psaki and others rushed out to reassure the Washington Blob that Biden hadn't meant that.

But then Biden went out to the microphones again to say he wasn't walking anything back, and had in fact meant the thing he'd first said.

So it does appear that the Cottonhead Puppet's handlers are directing things from behind the scenes, except when the puppet manages to get off of his hospital bed to get in front of some cameras and announce some dramatic shifts in US policy because he thinks that sounding like a tough guy will give him Magnum, PI-like approval ratings.

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, are openly critical of Biden. This criticism is pretty deadly from a fellow party-member:

Biden's angst is rippling through the party. Democratic lawmakers are sparring among themselves and blaming the White House for their dim prospects in November.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., said the White House has failed to put forward what she called an "intellectually honest" plan to combat inflation -- a burden that ranks first among Americans' economic concerns, polling indicates. A bill the House passed to crack down on alleged gas price gouging isn't an answer, she said.

"If I sound frustrated, it's because I hear from my constituents," Murphy said. "They're struggling. This is not a time for political games. It's not the time for finding bogeymen."

The angry old bedridden man is grumbling that he isn't getting enough "credit" for all his successes, and that the leftwing media which committed perjury to elect him just isn't fair to him.

This too is the story of Obama.

Biden has vented to aides about not getting credit from Americans or the news media for actions he believes have helped the country, particularly on the economy. Unemployment rates have dropped to below 4 percent -- pre-pandemic levels -- but polling indicates most Americans believe the economy is in bad shape. Biden grouses that Republicans aren't getting their share of the blame for legislative gridlock in Congress, while he's repeatedly faulted for not getting his agenda passed.

The president has also told aides he doesn't think enough Democrats go on television to defend him. A particular sore spot is his slumping poll numbers; he's mystified that his approval rating has dropped to a level approaching that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, ranked by historians as one of the worst presidents in history.

"He's now lower than Trump, and he's really twisted about it," another person close to the White House said.

Remember when Biden claimed "I don't look at the polls -- no joke"?

Well, I feel bad about doing this, but I'm about to rob you of your innocence.

Prepare for a blow: It turns out that Biden was lying.

At a meeting with advisers about a month ago, Biden was surprised to see polling that indicated he had dropped among suburban women, according to two people familiar with the meeting. An adviser said Biden gets weekly polling briefings that delve into "key demographics" and that, because he is kept apprised regularly, he didn't have that reaction. (At a news conference in September, Biden said flatly, "I don't look at the polls -- not a joke.")

He acknowledges there that AWFLs are his main constituency. And even his main constituency of Affluent White Feminist Leftists are abandoning him.

The White House official denied that Biden is feeling frustrated. "What he's pushing for is to make a sharper case for all that we have accomplished thus far," this person said.

Seriously, this is when you put Pop-Pop in a group home. He's babbling about nonsense.

A few weeks ago, Biden started employing a midterm election tactic that has been a go-to for sitting presidents: villainize the opposition. He has sought to tether Republicans to Trump's Make America Great Again agenda. But Biden has been leaning on White House aides to come up with a message that captures the stark choice voters face. Biden himself thought up the phrase "Ultra MAGA," which he and other Democrats have started using in hope of drawing a clear contrast with Trump's movement.

Except we know he didn't come up with that. It was workshopped by Anita Dunn's spin firm.

The retcon of the lie that White House staffers offer NBC here is that Biden came up with "Ultra MAGA," and then it tested well (presumably in Anita Dunn's focus groups). So they're trying to say it's true both that Biden invented it and Anita Dunn also invented it, sort of.

Below, a Biden staffer attempts to claim that NBC "News" is actually a right-wing operation doing a hit on Biden. Their proof? That their official denial, claiming that the staff never issues statements without Biden's approval only ran in paragraph 28, while the stuff that was said off-the-record about Biden being Mr. Crankypants was featured much more prominently.

By the way, here's Biden almost two years ago, promising to always take responsibility for his failures, and to never blame others.

posted by Ace at 03:08 PM

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