"Biden shedding support from independent voters as Delta variant spreads - Reuters poll": https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bi...elta-variant-spreads-reuters-poll-2021-08-27/
The last two weeks have been very bad for Biden and he deserves the blame for not handling the collapse and evacuation of Afghanistan better. There was plenty of intel out there that said that the Afghan military and government would fall in weeks but he still continued a rushed and by all appearances a poorly planned evacuation. Further up until Kabul actually fell he continued to say that the Afghan government and military would hold long enough to evacuate US citizens and allies out. I will give Biden a lot of credit though for saying he takes responsibility and that is the right thing to do as a leader rather than the previous President who said "he never takes responsibility." Trump liked to compare himself to Churchill yet most people forget that the "Darkest Hour" speech much of it was Churchill taking responsibility for the defeat and collapse of the British military in Europe. The biggest issue though is that I don't see a viable alternative right coming out of the GOP. Many of the leaders of the Republican party continue to push unproven and even ludicrous claims that the last election was "stolen" and / or are on a race to the bottom on fighting COVID-19. For Governors DeSantis, Abbott, and Noem they aren't just doing little to fight the ongoing disease but actively fighting measures to control the disease. Biden has never been perfect and the past month shows how flawed he is that said if the election where held this week I would still vote for him over any of the likely GOP Candidates.
When defense contractors open up the checkbook and need a politician with no spine… I know who will be ready to finally make their move @MojoMan Spoiler Mojo, see how I added commentary to the picture. Crazy!
The withdrawal has been a disaster but I truly think postponing it would have just bogged us down further and potentially been more dangerous. There may have been some political calculation to have this sh*tshow happen sooner than getting dragged out until the midterms. I think there's still time to regroup and refocus on the domestic issues with the major legislative push. While I don't think $3.5 trillion is realistic, it is important to get something major done along with the bipartisan china and infrastructure bill. China is a looming threat that the Dems should use for the mid terms, "investing in America to compete against China". Lastly, Biden still has some geopolitical levers to pull since he hasn't stopped the Trump Trade War that put tariffs on friend and foe alike. Not to mention it can't be helping inflation and supply chains. There's opportunity to cut a deal with allies while maintaining pressure on China and an opportunity for good messaging, "moving supply chains outside of China will b a short term cost".
the proposed TPP agreement w US allies was signed, in Feb 2016, for that purpose; but the newly elected POTUS, the trust fund baby,withdrew the US signature from TPP in January 2017, Biden can always bring back the TPP w US allies.
The withdrawl has been a disaster because the entire war was a complete utter disaster. The one thing ive learned though this is how powerful the deep state and how the media is a PR wing for the Pentagon. When they didnt get what they wanted from Biden the entire media ecosystem turned on biden. From magazines, journals, pbs, cnn, abc, cbs, fox, it was one huge blitz. If youre not scared as an American from these past two weeks then youre not looking at the right places. The one thing ive learned from this past month is to never watch cable news again. Its truly sickening how swift the entire media system can run a narrative. Its fkin insane.
I thought libertarians would want a dude who sleeps more than act. Powernap a presidency while doing nothing!
Biden screw up the exit and that press conference was not good. I vote for him easily over Trump or any extremist or liars.
I don't blame CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc.. for reporting that the Afghan government collapsed rapidly, the Kabul airport was swamped with people desperately getting out, and that a suicide bomber killed many including several American troops. These are facts. Facts are also that Biden leading up to these events was saying that Kabul wouldn't fall and that the Afghan military would hold. There was a lot of other information out there that this wasn't the case and in my opinion the press should've been reporting that more. It's always easy to blame the press for magnifying things and yes they do sensationalize that doesn't change that what Biden said doesn't match the reality and that there was a lot of signs well ahead of time that this could've happened badly.
You think that Biden should have publicly said the Afghan government were weak and would quickly fold? Or even mention this as a possibility? I suspect that Biden’s Afghan advisers likely told him that there was a wide range of outcomes. The Afghan transition team prepared in some fashion for each. The immediate collapse of the Afghan was not the expected outcome but one that was planned for. What also can be said (but not by the brain dead press) is that this is not the worst outcome. The US could be in a shooting war with the Taliban (along with ISIS-K ftm), while trying to evacuate US personnel (since at that point this would be all that could be hoped for).
There was a lot of evidence that this was going to happen. I would've preferred Biden be more straight forward about that possibility instead of saying things like "There is no reality where Kabul falls quickly". At the minimum he should've warned us that this was a distinct possibility. Trust and confidence are critical for leadership and when a leader's rhetoric falls so short of the reality we can see how much damage that can due to trust and confidence. No this isn't the worse situation but given that he had to send 6,000 troops back in to secure the airport after the initial panic shows that this was poorly planned. If they had prepared for that Kabul would fall quickly and that chaos would ensue those troops could've been positioned ahead of time to prevent the initial panic and possibly been able to get more Americans and Afghans out sooner.
Yes that possibility should be stated to the American public. He said he would be honest with the public, well I also want to hear proactive honesty. If he didn’t know than that speak to his poor leadership or incompetent… I’m glad he owning up to it and doing all to correct it now but man, we should have known and more importantly he should have known and have plan B ready.
