Biden’s missteps defining his rule

Mix of good and bad hearkens back to LBJ

Joe Biden could have been a good president.

All he had to do was leave things alone.

Instead, beginning on day one of his presidency, he wrecked what worked. And the country has been paying the price since.

In just eight months in office he has brought about chaos and confusion, ranging from the debacle in Afghanistan to vaccination mandates.

He opened the southern border and is flooding the country with hundreds of thousands of unvetted, unvaccinated illegal immigrants, while turning a once energy-independent country into a nation now importing oil from Russia.

To insure the U.S. would remain an energy deprived country, Biden shut down the Keystone XL pipeline while greenlighting Russia’s Nord Stream 2 undersea pipeline that has made Germany, a NATO ally, dependent on Russian energy.

Speaking of Russia, Vladimir Putin just held a massive military exercise at Kaliningrad on the doorstep of Europe in full understanding that Biden has alienated fellow NATO members by keeping NATO in the dark about his Afghanistan evacuation plan.

It is true the Biden has achieved several legislative accomplishments, not the least was his huge $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that provided financial aid to the needy. He also could win big on his pending $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill.

Also, he has signed scores of executive orders, like pausing payment of college student loan payments.

But there are troubling warning signs that Biden’s presidency, as brief as it has been, could go the way of the presidency of fellow Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, who, despite his legislative achievements, was practically hounded out of office in 1968.

Johnson became president upon the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963.

He was overwhelmingly elected in 1964 and achieved a stunning legislative record, including passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid.

However, the war in Vietnam hung around his neck like an albatross. While Kennedy left him an almost below-the-radar war, Johnson escalated the war, sending in some 500,000 troops. He repeatedly lied about the progress of the war, and the casualties mounted to a breaking point.

Soon there were anti-war, anti-draft protests and riots in cities across the country. Chants of “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids you kill today?” followed Johnson wherever he went. His approval rating took a nosedive. Soon the only public appearances Johnson made were at safe military installations.

Despite all his legislative victories, Johnson surprised the nation when he announced that he would not seek re-election.

Now we have Joe Biden and his calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of sporadic combat that cost the lives of 2,500 Americans, and thousands more wounded, coupled with the needless death of the 13 young soldiers at the Kabul airport.

And now the military has confirmed that 10 innocent civilians, including seven children, were killed in a missile air strike in the mistaken belief that they were ISIS terrorists.

There are still hundreds of stranded Americans left behind, along with thousands of abandoned Afghan U.S. allies.

And we have an administration that appears to have no clue or plan how to get them out, not from Biden, or from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

These are the four horsemen of the Afghanistan Apocalypse.

Is it any wonder why people are angry?

Biden, like Johnson, is being heckled and booed — at the Ground Zero 20th anniversary ceremony in New York, and again in California where he campaigned for Gov. Gavin Newsom.

He is getting to look like a haunted Johnson. And the chants — “Bleep Joe Biden” are growing. They are personal and vulgar, and they are coming mainly from unmasked young people in the stands at college football games.

These are the college students who, through social media and other media outlets, are quite aware of what medieval and barbaric plans — thanks to Joe Biden — are in store for women and college students under the Taliban. And they also know that it was under Biden that those innocent children were killed in that war crime-like, horrific air strike.

Joe Biden can erase all college loan debt outright. It is not going to make any difference.

He cannot erase his blunders.

LbJ LibrArY And ArCHiVES/Ap fLE SPLIT RECORD: President Lyndon B. Johnson talks on the phone in this Jan. 10, 1964, White House photo. Johnson, like Biden, had some successes, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid, but was hounded by criticism of his handling of the Vietnam War.

GETTY iMAgES fiLE MORE BAD THAN GOOD: President Biden received a few nods of approval for his huge $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package and his efforts to pass an infrastructure bill, but has been criticized over increasing U.S. energy independence and the badly handled removal of troops from Afghanistan.