Not too late for Biden presidency to reset, aim for less ambitious goals

THE inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th US president in January 2021 had raised hopes at home and abroad that America would be able to overcome its political divisions and regain its global leadership position.

After 4 years during which it seemed that chaos reigned in Washington and leadership was absent from the White House, the arrival of an experienced public servant signalled a return of a sense of competence and coherence to the way US policies are conducted. President Biden did face vexing policy challenges upon entering office, led by a deadly pandemic that wasn't yet under control, coupled with an economic crisis and an unstable world. For a while, it seemed that President Biden was moving in the right direction, starting with a promising vaccine rollout and signs that the Covid-19 virus was beatable; the passage of an emergency legislative package to provide direct relief to Americans devastated by the pandemic; and the start of mending relations with America's allies.

Yet as Biden enters his second year in office, his job approval rate is sinking, inflation is rising, and his ambitious economic programme is in tatters. Experts are predicting that the Republicans would regain control of Congress after the 2022 midterm election. While the surge of new Covid-19 variants cannot be pinned on Biden, his critics charge that he has failed to deliver on his pledges to enact a consistent and effective strategy to get all Americans tested and vaccinated. At the same time, it seems that in retrospect Biden and his Democratic Party have misread the results of the 2020 election, taking them as a mandate for a radical transformation of America's social-economic system.