How Joe Killed Confidence

Americans’ optimism about the country’s direction has plummeted almost 20 points since the spring. Sadly, that’s a rational reaction to President Biden’s first six months. It’s not just that the public gives the prez low marks on his handling (non-handling) of the surge at the southern border and the surge in shootings on our streets. Other worries center on the economy and new lockdowns in the face of the Delta variant — problems Team Biden is plainly making worse.

In the ABC News/Ipsos poll, just 45 percent of Americans are optimistic about the country’s direction this coming year, down from 64 percent in early May.

It’s no wonder. Consumer prices rose 5.4 percent in June from a year earlier, the biggest monthly jump since right before the 2008 financial crisis. Even the post-pandemic recovery seems at risk, as new unemployment claims jumped last week to 419,000, the highest level since mid-May and more than twice the average in 2019.

Crucially, Biden’s handling of the pandemic got its lowest rating yet, with 63 percent approval. That’s better than he’s earned.

The prez missed his own target of getting 70 percent of adults their first shot by July 4 and still hasn’t met it. Meanwhile, his chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, is talking about another mask mandate while Americans worry about more lockdowns.

Getting Americans jabbed should have been Biden’s overwhelming priority. Yet his team underestimated the challenge — despite such known facts as: Many of us won’t even get the flu vaccine, and even healthcare workers are notoriously vax-resistant.

He opted instead for a partisan crusade to transform the nation, aiming to rival FDR. First, he passed his overlarge “relief ” bill on a party-line vote. Then he began a feckless drive for $6 trillion more in new spending. He also burned energy and political capital with “Jim Crow” nonsense about GOP efforts to slightly tighten election security.

If Biden had sought unity as he promised on Inauguration Day, he could have passed modest bills targeted at the nation’s real needs, while focusing on jabbing the whole country to guarantee a return to normalcy and the booming pre-COVID economy. But he chose to chase “historic victories.”

A president elected mainly to be different from the last guy has been all about feeding his own ego — and earning this huge loss in public confidence.