A difficult week for President Biden By John Zogby
There is no way to spin this into a good week for Biden. Actually, it has been a horrible week.
Despite impressive progress on the hard infrastructure bill, he now faces hostile progressives, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Nothing is inevitable despite solid bipartisan support in the Senate on the first bill.
Photo from President Biden
At the same time, the president and Democrats were handed another defeat on voting rights.
Despite the numbers of new unemployment claims going down, following last week's good new jobs report, consumer confidence is the lowest it has been in a decade as inflation continues to rear its ugly head.
Finally, the Taliban are close to taking control of Kabul, knocking down a growing number of regional capitals. This march has accelerated with the final pullout of U.S. forces from that God-forsaken country. Biden was in an impossible position with solid majorities of Americans opposed to keeping military forces there, an unsteady and weak government in Kabul, and the Afghan military's loss of will to fight.
The Taliban's return to power has been inevitable, and they are reported to be continuing their punishment of civilians and destructive behavior toward women. Regardless of the merit or lack of merit to the president's withdrawal policy, this very sad story has a terrible ending, and it is on his watch.
John Zogby (@TheJohnZogby) is the founder of the Zogby Poll and Zogby companies, including John Zogby Strategies, and author of We Are Many We Are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in the 21st Century America.
