OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden is wildly unpopular, but the fact that the nation appears to have buyer’s remorse is not stopping him from doing his media schtick and it is not stopping those in the entertainment business from pretending that his election was some kind of improvement.
Biden appeared on the “Tonight Show” on Friday as host Jimmy Fallon fawned all over him, even though he was live via remote and not in the studio as if he was a rock star.
During the segment, Fallon asked the president if he paid attention to poll numbers to which Biden responded with a joke.
“’Not Anymore,” he said. “I paid attention when they’re in the mid-60s not when they’re in the mid-40s.”
Admitting that your poll numbers are so low that you do not even look at them anymore is shocking in and of itself, but joking about your dismal failures is an even bigger stunner.
He mentioned the immense inflation that has gripped the nation as one of the causes of his unpopularity, though he did not take any responsibility for it.
“We do have inflation on things that matter to people’s lives,” he said. “You show up to the gas station and it’s $3.50 a pump. But now, because I took 50 billion barrels out of the oil and petroleum reserves, the gasoline is down below $3 in many places. It’s gonna come down, it’s gonna move.
“But in the meantime, people are worried. There’s a lot of anxiety and my job is to be straightforward, shoot from the shoulder, let people know exactly what the truth is and lay out how I’m gonna try to make life better for them,” he said.
He bragged about the passing of the bipartisan infrastructure bill and promoted his Build Back Better plan which has been stalled in the Senate with Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema standing in its way.
When Fallon asked him if it would be passed by the end of the year the president ignored the fact that two Democrats are standing in its way and, instead, blamed Republicans.
“I hope it will but I don’t have a single Republican vote to pass it, so it’s gonna be tough but I think we can get it done and we’re gonna keep at it till we get it done,” he said.
He then touted the ridiculous notion that the $1.2 trillion bill would not cost American taxpayers anything.
“A whole range of things in there that are gonna reduce the cost of living for people in a reasonable, rational way and every single thing in that bill is paid for. It will not increase the deficit one penny,” he said.
.@POTUS reacts to his recent approval ratings and explains how he’s tackling misinformation, unemployment, and inflation. #FallonTonight pic.twitter.com/eF85FempjL
— The Tonight Show (@FallonTonight) December 11, 2021
And picking again from his greatest hits collection he also managed to sneak in a shot at his predecessor, Donald Trump, and some of his supporters.
“The QAnon and fringe elements of the party and what Trump keeps feeding with the big lie makes it awful hard,” he said. “There’s an awful lot of Republicans in Congress that would agree.”
They love to use that phrase, “the big lie.” Some would argue that “the big lie” is the White House telling us that Joe Biden is competent enough to be President of the United States.
And he argued that his low poll numbers are due to people being told to be afraid, rather than the fact that they can see with their own eyes that the prices of goods and services has skyrocketed.
“They’re being told that Armageddon’s on the way,” the president said. “The truth is the economy’s grown more than it has any time in close to 60 years, the unemployment rate is down to 4.2% – it’s going to go lower, in my view.”
You know Joe sometimes the answer is as simple as it appears. Sometimes it is just you that is the problem.
