Obama’s worries on Joe, Dominican rights crisis and other commentary
Neocon: Bam’s Worries on Joe
Despite press spin to the contrary, argues Matthew Continetti at Commentary, ex-prez Barack Obama is plainly worried about “the mixture of apathy and antagonism that the electorate feels toward Biden.” His “polls are a Russian nesting doll of bad news. His overall approval numbers, averaging in the low 40s, have entered the reelection danger zone.” And they’re “worse still” on “the most important issue for voters — the economy.” Pundits offer “psychological and institutional explanations,” but “Biden is not the victim of national malaise. He is its cause.” It’s not just his “age and infirmity.” Inflation “has lowered the American standard of living.” US debt’s been downgraded while “gas prices” and “illegal border crossings” are both rising. And Ukraine’s “counteroffensive has yet to punch through Russian defenses, and the U.S. military is out of ammunition.” Just “one of these crises would be enough to strain the capacities of a White House. Biden is lackadaisical about them all.”
Foreign desk: Dominican Rights Crisis
President Biden promised to “revitalize our national commitment to advancing human rights and democracy around the world,” but is failing in the Dominican Republic, warns Mario H. Lopez at RealClearPolitics. In the DR, “the Biden administration is seemingly enabling a crisis” of “preventive detention, which holds individuals indefinitely in prison before trial.” Up to “70% of people in Dominican prisons are being held on a preventive basis, often without seeing the inside of a courtroom.” Washington “recently had the audacity to crown the Dominican Republic a ‘bright spot country’ when it comes to defending human rights,” yet denounced El Salvador’s use of preventive detention, confirming Biden’s “inconsistent approach” to “pick and choose which nations will be called out for their criminal justice policies.”
Air watch: Flying Blind With No FAA Chief
The Federal Aviation Administration needs leadership, and President Biden can’t “spare a thought” for the issue, gripes The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board. To replace an interim FAA administrator leaving in October, Biden nominated “Phil Washington, a transit official and Biden loyalist who also lacked aviation experience. Senators of both parties balked at his nomination.” Washington withdrew in March — and Biden’s nominated no one else since. “This isn’t a problem of partisanship,” as Republicans will support a qualified administrator, but the Biden team prefers a “party man without experience.” “More than two million passengers fly each day in the U.S., and they deserve a competent, Senate-confirmed administrator.”
From the right: Ramaswamy’s Cynicism
“Notoriety is the coin of the realm in Republican politics at the moment,” note National Review’s editors of GOP hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy’s “tawdry justifications of January 6” and his flirting “with conspiracy theories.” “Ramaswamy said he doesn’t believe the 9/11 commission” and told The Atlantic “I think it is legitimate to say, How many police, how many federal agents were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers?” — then, NR notes, “retreated to the standard cornered politician’s defense that he’d been misquoted.” “The episode may not hurt Ramaswamy, indeed may even help him by garnering him more attention. But, for anyone truly paying attention, he’s been making it obvious how much the truth, his calling card and slogan, means to him.”
Libertarian: China’s Economic Warning
“There’s a lesson for America in China’s economic wobbles,” explains Reason’s Eric Boehm. “Panic over China’s rapid economic growth has fueled all manner of big-government proposals in recent years,” but Beijing’s heavy bet “on the misguided notion that government-directed investment is the key to greater economic growth” now leaves the country facing “economic woes,” including high youth unemployment. Yes, “governmental stimulus spending can drive economic growth higher over the short term, but the bill eventually comes due in the form of higher debt and wasted resources.” “American officials should be in no rush to follow [President Xi Jinping] down a path that requires curtailing liberty to chase a little temporary stimulus.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
