
-
Djokovic crashes to nervous Arnaldi in Madrid opener
-
Syria's Kurds demand 'democratic decentralised' Syria
-
Leverkusen win to delay Bayern and Kane's title party
-
Buenos Aires farewells native pontiff with tears and calls to action
-
Turkey's opposition says Erdogan's canal plan behind latest arrests
-
Maresca hails 'nasty' Chelsea as top five bid stays alive
-
Trump raises Putin doubts after Zelensky talks at pope's funeral
-
Major blast at Iran port kills 4, injures hundreds
-
Napoleon's sword to be sold at auction in Paris
-
Iran, US discuss nuclear deal in third round of talks
-
Buenos Aires farewells native pontiff with call to action
-
Warholm sets hurdles world record at Diamond League, Holloway shocked
-
US students 'race' sperm in reproductive health stunt
-
Wikileaks founder Assange joins crowds for pope funeral
-
Leader Marc Marquez claims Spanish MotoGP sprint victory
-
Celtic win fourth successive Scottish Premiership title
-
Jackson ends drought as Chelsea boost top five push
-
Warholm sets 300m hurdles world record in Diamond League opener
-
Major blast at south Iran port kills 4, injures hundreds
-
Russia says retook Kursk from Ukraine with North Korean help
-
Francis laid to rest as 400,000 mourn pope 'with an open heart'
-
Trump, Zelensky meet on sidelines of pope's funeral
-
'Shared loss': Filipino Catholics bid Pope Francis farewell
-
Families unable to reunite as India-Pakistan border slams shut
-
Major blast at south Iran port injures hundreds
-
Foreign carmakers strive for 'China Speed' to stay in race
-
Pakistan says open to neutral probe into Kashmir attack after India threats
-
Hundreds of thousands at funeral mourn pope 'with an open heart'
-
Quartararo sets Spanish MotoGP record to claim pole
-
Hamas says open to 5-year Gaza truce, one-time hostages release
-
Iran, US hold new round of high-stakes nuclear talks
-
Up at dawn for front-row seat to history at Francis's funeral
-
Pakistan ready to 'defend sovereignty' after India threats
-
Huge crowds flock to Vatican for Pope Francis's funeral
-
Xi says China must 'overcome' AI chip challenges
-
Indian army says new exchange of gunfire with Pakistan
-
Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre takes own life in Australia: family
-
Hundreds of buildings damaged, dozens injured in 6.3 Ecuador quake
-
India and Pakistan's Kashmir fallout hits economy too
-
Francis's funeral to be grand farewell to 'pope of the poor'
-
Pogacar faces defiant Evenepoel at Liege-Bastogne-Liege
-
Chelsea eye great escape against Barcelona in Women's Champions League
-
Iran, US to hold new round of high-level nuclear talks
-
'Energy and effort' pay off for Reds as Blues' woes continue
-
Albatross and closing birdie lift China's Liu to LPGA Chevron lead
-
On the horizon? Wave of momentum for high seas treaty
-
New to The Street Launches For The Causes(TM) Monthly Awareness Segments: Offering Free National Media to Charities and Organizations
-
Top Mistakes to Avoid When Building Credit History
-
Developing countries should fast-track US trade deals: World Bank president
-
Grizzlies' Morant 'doubtful' for must-win game 4 v Thunder

Frustrated Biden enters second year looking to fight
Joe Biden 1.0 was a calming, grandfatherly figure, a low-key veteran coming out of retirement in 2020 to heal a nation deeply divided by Donald Trump. A year later, meet Biden 2.0 -- the frustrated, angry fighter.
"I'm tired of being quiet," he said last week in a blistering speech.
Biden was referring specifically to his many fruitless "quiet conversations" behind the scenes with senators in a doomed effort to get his signature legislation on voting rights passed. He could just as well have been summing up the exasperation of his first 12 months in the Oval Office.
And if 2021 saw mild Biden, 2022 looks set to feature a louder, more pugnacious version -- a president running out of time, patience and allies to save what remain of his ambitions.
Biden took office January 20, 2021 -- at 78, the oldest man to ever become US president -- facing incredible challenges.
Covid-19 was out of control, Trump's supporters had just two weeks earlier tried overturning the presidential election, the economy was comatose, and around the world US allies were reeling in Trump shock of their own.
Biden's answer to all that -- not to mention to the explosive tensions over racism after a series of Black Americans were killed during botched arrests -- was to promise competency, old-fashioned decency and unity.
"My whole soul is in this. Bringing America together, uniting our people," Biden pledged in his inaugural address.
And he even seemed to have a chance of pulling it off.
Democrats narrowly controlled both houses of Congress, Trump had been banished from Twitter, and Covid vaccines were ready.
"There were high expectations that Biden, given his experience and his knowledge of Washington, would be able... to make the trains run on time again," said Lara Brown, director of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University.
"It was all about a return to normalcy."
- 'Hubris' -
Fast forward to the start of Biden's second year.
Beset by the Delta and Omicron Covid variants, an ever-more divided America, and the likely loss of Congress to the Republicans in November's midterm elections, Biden's luck at the age of 79 seems to have run short.
With a majority of just one in the Senate and barely more than that in the House, his huge social spending plan -- called Build Back Better -- is dead in the water. Ditto the voting rights package he says is needed to save US democracy from Trump's supporters.
A centrist at heart, Biden has failed to connect with the right or satisfy his own party's left. As he's discovering, the center today is hard to find.
Average approval polls on fivethirtyeight.com are at a lowly 42 percent, down from 53. A recent Quinnipiac poll, while an outlier, posted a disturbing 33 percent approval.
Abroad, the picture is similar.
While world allies do like having a United States not governed by Trump back, the country's humiliating military exit from Afghanistan torpedoed the Biden administration's aura of professionalism. Certainly Russia seems unconcerned, as it masses troops on Ukraine's border.
It all adds up to a bitter awakening from the days when the White House buzzed with idealism and talk of Biden emulating his hero Franklin Roosevelt, who led America through the Great Depression in the 1930s.
"Their optimism, combined with the public expectation that all of this would be solved, led them down a path of hubris," Brown said.
- 'Less shouting' or 'fight'? -
There's still a scenario where Biden comes out on top: the pandemic burns out, the economy stabilizes, inflation recedes, and with the subsequent feel-good factor Biden gets his party to reverse those legislative defeats just in time for the midterms.
Biden's aides also point out they got Congress to pass the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, juicing a Covid-ravaged economy and preventing more widespread misery. Remarkably, Democrats also got strong Republican support in passing a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package.
All that with a razor-thin majority in Congress.
The more likely outcome for 2022, though, is continued Democratic infighting, followed by Republicans winning one or both chambers of Congress in November.
At that point, Biden can expect aggressive House investigations, and even possibly impeachment, as Republicans seek to further undermine their opponents' ability to govern.
And it would become increasingly likely a 2024 White House challenge could come from Trump, even as the former president continues to try to subvert the 2020 election.
So much for Biden's vow to restore "the soul of America."
David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist at the heart of the mainstream establishment, advises Biden to pivot back to "less shouting and more of Biden's trademark common sense."
But Biden, his back against the wall, is signaling that he sees things more darkly going into 2022.
"I did not seek this fight," he said in another dramatic speech this month, this time commemorating the anniversary of the January 6 storming of Congress by Trump supporters.
"But I will not shrink from it either," Biden said. "I will stand in this breach."
S.F.Warren--AMWN