{"id":2900,"date":"2025-01-07T21:09:15","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T21:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=2900"},"modified":"2025-01-07T21:09:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T21:09:15","slug":"opinion-the-biden-presidency-four-illusions-four-deceptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friscotimes.org\/?p=2900","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | The Biden Presidency: Four Illusions, Four Deceptions"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Americans tend to have a soft spot for our former presidents. Even the bad ones.<\/p>\n

By the time Richard Nixon died in 1994, his presidency was as likely to be lauded for the opening to China or the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency as it was to be damned for Watergate. Gerald Ford\u2019s pardon of Nixon, furiously condemned at the time as a dirty political bargain, was later celebrated<\/a> as an example of selfless statesmanship. Jimmy Carter\u2019s reputational resurrection \u2014 not just for the way he conducted his post-presidency, but also for his acts in office \u2014 would have astounded the country that sent him packing in 1980 amid stagflation and a hostage crisis.<\/p>\n

Will Joe Biden enjoy a similar place in our national memory? It\u2019s possible, and his administration had its achievements: NATO enlargement, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, defending Ukraine and Israel, strengthening alliances in the Pacific.<\/p>\n

But Biden\u2019s presidency will also be remembered for four big illusions \u2014 and four big deceptions. They will not serve his legacy well.<\/p>\n

The illusions: first, that the 2021 surge in migration was seasonal (\u201chappens every single solitary year<\/a>,\u201d as Biden said that March); second, that the Taliban would not swiftly seize Afghanistan (\u201cthe likelihood there\u2019s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,\u201d as he said that July<\/a>); third, that inflation was transitory (\u201cOur experts believe, and the data shows, that most of the price increases we\u2019ve seen are expected to be temporary,\u201d also that July<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n