WSJ: The State of the Union Contradiction: If Biden is such a success, why aren’t Americans pleased?

President Biden devoted most of his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to celebrating what he says is a long list of legislative and economic achievements—spending on social programs and public works, subsidies for computer chips, even more subsidies for green energy, and a strong labor market. But if he’s done so much for America, why does most of America not seem to appreciate it?

That’s the contradiction stalking his Presidency as he enters his third year and plots a likely re-election campaign. The disconnect is clear enough in the polls. His job approval rating average has climbed to 44.2% in the RealClearPolitics average, which should be better with all of that supposed good news. Gallup has it at 41%. Mr. Biden’s RCP average job approval on the economy is 38%.

The latest Washington Post/ABC poll is even worse for the President. Some 41% of Americans say they’re worse off financially than when Mr. Biden became President, while only 16% say they’re better off. Most people—62%—say Mr. Biden has accomplished either not very much or little or nothing. That includes 22% of Democrats.

And here’s the really bad news for Mr. Biden. Some 58% of Democrats say they’d prefer a different party nominee for President in 2024, and he even loses a head to head matchup with former President Trump 48%-44%. . . .

The President’s biggest problem is that all of his legislative victories haven’t delivered the benefits he promised. The $1.9 trillion Covid bill in March 2021 added so much cash to the economy that it helped to trigger an historic inflation. The result is that most Americans haven’t had a raise in their income after inflation in two years. This takes a shine off the low unemployment rate every time people hit the grocery store. They can see that the nearly $500 billion in spending and tax subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 had nothing at all to do with reducing inflation.

Americans also observe a fraying social consensus that has them worried about the country. Crime may not be as high as it was in the 1990s, but it has risen sharply in big cities. The record migrant surge across the border would be less worrisome if Mr. Biden seemed to care about stopping it. The fentanyl scourge isn’t his fault, but its breadth betrays a troubling decay in values.

As for foreign policy, Americans can see that the world is becoming more dangerous and its rogues more brazen.

Americans aren’t pleased, because he’s not a success, all claims by the Biden Administration and the media — but I repeat myself — notwithstanding.

HMM: James O’Keefe Put on Leave at Project Veritas. Has There Been a Coup?

HYPOCRITES ON PARADE: Bill Gates defends using private jets despite climate activism.

HARD-HITTING #JOURNALISM: EXCLUSIVE: Frame-By-Frame Analysis Sheds Light on Dr. Jill’s Open-Mouthed Make-Out Sesh With Kamala’s Husband: Biden family has a long history of marital chaos.

Remember this if Joe dies suspiciously. . . .

Related:

They knew they were on national TV. . . .

UPDATE: From the comments: “This kinda shows that Covid is over.”

FINALLY, SOME GOOD NEWS: Wholesale Egg Prices ‘Collapse.’ “New data from Urner Barry, a market research firm that tracks wholesale food prices, shows its Urner Barry Egg Index has plunged 57% since peaking at $4.65 per dozen on Dec. 19. Wholesale prices are now at $2.01.”

WELL, GOOD. NOW THEY NEED TO PUNISH THE PEOPLE WHO ARE PEDDLING IT: People Aren’t Buying the Phoney Baloney Anymore.

JUDICIAL CREATIVITY: Does Federal Right to Abortion Survive Overturning Of Roe v. Wade? Federal Judge Raises Possibility. “Judge Kollar-Kotelly then proceeded to posit that the Thirteenth Amendment, which outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude, might also provide such a basis for a federal right to an abortion.”

Yes, I’m sure the hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers who died in the Civil War were fighting for abortion rights.

CDR SALAMANDER: The Democratic Party’s Strange Internal Struggles on the Russo-Ukraine War. “Liberal internationalists, pragmatists, and Asia-firsters. That seems roughly correct, but for those who have a memory more than a few years old, there is one glaring omission; the anti-war left. Of course, that part of the democrat coalition usually fades in to shadow whenever the party is in power. I’ve come to think a portion of them experienced a rather strange morphology during the now discredited Russia-Trump collusion hoax that had them all of a sudden become Russia hawks. They had yet to regress to the mean when the Russo-Ukrainian War started and it kind of stuck.”

JOSH BLACKMAN: Professor Xiao Wang in the Minnesota Law Review Refutes A Position I Do Not Hold.

Wang should have cited my National Review piece as support for this thesis! We agree!

Here, we have a failure of the author to accurately cite a source, and the failure of the editors to check sources. Moreover, it is all too common for authors to tease student editors with lofty claims like “I challenge conventional wisdom” or “I proved so-and-so-wrong.” The latter claim is especially attractive when the author shows that conservatives are worse than liberals, or even worse, a conservative author is a hypocrite. (That’s me.). The journal was snookered here.

I emailed both Wang and the journal. They replied there would be no correction. So this blog post will serve as the rejoinder.

May I offer some advice to editors: if you ever say someone is wrong, actually quote them. Don’t paraphrase them. Don’t take a few words out of context. Quote them at length. Quote the exact point that you are saying was wrong. And once you’ve done that, stop short of actually saying they’re wrong. Make it soft. The author may have erred when he wrote… The author failed to consider… The author did not account for… And so on. But don’t write that your work “contradicts” what someone else wrote–especially when the person you are criticizing supports your work.

This seems like the scholarly approach.

UKRAINE WAR [VIP]: The Russian Steamroller Crushes Down on Bakhmut, but for How Long? “If Kyiv is already giving ground, it’s a fair question what the army might be forced to do if the expected Russian wave starts really crashing down later this month.”

Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

I HAD MISSED THIS ONE: Banning Gas Stoves by Regulation: New Energy Department rules would eliminate most current models.

When progressives can’t pass their agenda through the front door in Congress, they sneak it through a regulatory back window. That’s what the Biden Administration is doing with gas stoves, as the Energy Department this week proposed new rules that amount to a gradual de facto ban.

A Biden appointee on the Consumer Product Safety Commission ignited a firestorm last month by threatening to ban gas stoves. After criticism from West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and others, the CPSC chairman rejected the idea, and White House officials said they didn’t support banning gas stoves.

Then why has the Energy Department proposed new efficiency standards that would ban the sale of most gas stoves currently on the market? The stated purpose of the rule-making is to reduce energy consumption and save consumers money. But these benefits are meager. The department estimates the proposed rule would reduce energy use by a mere 3.4% from the status quo, and consumers on average would save $21.89 over a cook-top’s lifetime.

Even this assumes the standards are technically achievable without compromising performance. A spokesperson for the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers tells us that gas cook-tops would have to be completely redesigned to comply. Burners might have to become smaller and heavy grate designs altered, which would increase cooking times.

Twenty of the 21 gas stove-top models that the Energy Department tested wouldn’t comply with its proposed standards. Manufacturers would have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars redesigning stoves, if they bother.

Those costs would be passed to consumers in higher prices. The Energy Department estimates increased appliance prices will be offset by lower energy bills as well as climate and health benefits. But these benefits are speculative while higher product costs and reduced performance will directly harm consumers.

Making appliances more energy efficient involves trade-offs. Consumers and manufacturers may choose to make them, but they shouldn’t be forced.

Forcing people is the goal. The environment is just the excuse. They actively want to make ordinary people’s lives worse.

TAKE HEART. THE NUMBERS FOR PERMA SOCIALISM DON’T WORK:  Doing the Arithmetic.

I WILL KEEP THE DISNEY COMICS I BOUGHT FOR THE BOYS AND MIGHT ADD MORE, USED, OTHER THAN THAT I AGREE:  The Last Straw of US.

NOT JUST SOMALIA. THE WORLD:  Somalia’s Problem Isn’t Climate Change, It’s the Climate Agenda.

AGAIN, IT’S BEEN THIS BAD MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE:  A look at just how bad left our universities have fallen.

They just used to hide it better, till Trump made them lose their minds.

THIS IS NOT NEW. STORY OF MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE AND THAT OF ALL MY FRIENDS IN THE ARTS AND MANY IN ACADEMIA:  How Ideologues Infiltrated the Arts.

And we’re in our fifties and sixties.

THEY KEEP IMAGINING THAT ‘GRANDMA’ WAS BORN IN 1920:  It gets harder and harder to shock people.

Some of us are quite shockable but not by their puerile acts. That’s just show business. It’s whatever. Their casual contempt for the bill of rights? that leaves me breathless and disgusted and, yes, shocked. Disgusted to. And that they don’t realize.

WEIRDLY THAT ALSO MEANS YOU CAN’T GET FORCED CHILD-SUPPORT FROM FATHERS:   Judge Claims Abortion Loophole In 13th Amendment.

Intellectual consistency. So inconvenient.

BIDEN CLAIMS A LOT OF THINGS WITH NO CONNECTION TO REALITY:  Biden Claims We Are In Competition With China, Not Conflict.

HIRING FOR ANY REASON OTHER THAN COMPETENCE, OVER TIME DESTROYS COMPETENCE:  Competence is dead and diversity killed it.

WE’LL SHOW THEM PRECISELY THE RESPECT AND DECORUM THEY SHOWED TRUMP. PRECISELY:  Democrats and Media Suddenly Care About Decorum and Respect After Biden SOTU Address.

WHAT? REGULATE AND TAX?  Congress Looking to Create New Regulations, Taxes for Marijuana.

Now there’s an effective war on drugs.

THEY DON’T LIKE CHILDREN ANYHOW:  The Baby Formula Shortage Crisis Continues.

REPARATIONS TO PEOPLE WHO WERE NEVER SLAVES PAID BY PEOPLE WHO NEVER OWNED SLAVES:  Boston Mayor Michelle Wu Assembles Reparations Task Force.

THE ATTACKS ON DESANTIS ARE A BIG MISTAKE FOR TRUMP. THEY’RE NOT CONNECTING, AND THEY MAKE HIM LOOK SMALL AND OUT OF TOUCH.

BREAKING: DeSantis responds to Trump ReTruth accusing him of being a "groomer"

"I'd just say this. I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden […] I don't spend my time trying to smear other Republicans." pic.twitter.com/Ddj9Mb1MYj

— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) February 8, 2023

An InstaPundit commenter says “Trump feels like the modern day Tom Brady or Madonna. Their time has passed and they’re the last to know.” Harsh, but fair. I’d vote for Trump if he were the nominee, and I wish he’d won in 2020, but he seems to have lost a step.