Biden botched his first year as president

Tuesday night, President Joe Biden will get applause from a friendly audience of Democrats who narrowly control the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate under Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. It will be the last enthusiastic State of the Union audience Biden sees as president.

Judging by his cratering polling numbers, the second-lowest presidential approval rating after a year, voters will hand control of Congress to Republicans in November. By any reasonable standard, Biden bungled the first year of his presidency.

The case that his foreign policy has been disastrous is particularly clear. Biden came into office selling himself as a seasoned hand on foreign policy, having spent time with all the major players around the world as vice president and as a former chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Putin was watching

Biden began his presidency with a plan to cut defense spending (after inflation) even in the face of resurgent threats from Russia and China. Vladimir Putin was watching.

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His administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was a disaster, leaving many Americans and thousands of our allies behind in a country that quickly fell to the Taliban. The precipitous departure left the United States looking weak and incompetent in the eyes of allies and enemies alike. Vladimir Putin was watching.

His decision to put the fight against climate change ahead of American energy independence – increasing regulation of oil and gas, cutting the ability of oil and gas companies to drill on federal land and canceling the Keystone XL pipeline – gave OPEC and Russia more leverage as oil prices rose. Vladimir Putin was watching.

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He agreed to allow Germany to go ahead with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would have made Europe more dependent on Russia for its energy supplies. Western leaders knew it was a bad idea in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Dependence on Russia made it impossible for Western leaders to agree on tough sanctions after the first invasion. Vladimir Putin was watching.

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As Russia pressured Ukraine with the troops needed for a multipronged invasion, Biden relied on talk to deter the Russians and waited too long to deliver arms to the Ukrainian military to make a difference in Russia’s calculus. Vladimir Putin was watching.

Then Putin invaded. Biden’s initial reaction was to impose sanctions too weak to punish the Russians, a move he only partially corrected after an impassioned plea from the Ukrainian president and with the agreement of European allies.

To be clear, Putin is the only one to blame for his invasion of Ukraine, but Biden’s year of appeasement and weakness didn’t help. The public is judging him for his failure.

Domestic issues also are a mess

On the domestic front, things aren’t much better.

In cities across the country, violent crime is spiking and the Biden administration has done little or nothing.

Nationwide, inflation is rising at levels not seen since the 1980s, and Biden’s policies on pandemic relief ($1.9 trillion) and infrastructure ($1.2 trillion) have not helped.

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The immigration debacle at the Mexican border hasn’t eased in a year while the administration has focused on diplomacy, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, instead of tough enforcement.

As parental frustration with how schools handled the COVID-19 crisis and heavy-handed teaching about race bubbled over into rancorous school board meetings, the Biden Justice Department threatened to treat angry mothers like criminals.

Presented with a surging omicron variant, the Biden administration responded with Band-Aid handouts of masks and home tests kits that were too little and too late to make a difference.

Tuesday night, Biden should bask in the applause. The welcome won’t be as friendly next year, and the only person he can blame is himself.

David Mastio is a columnist for USA TODAY. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidMastio

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden’s State of the Union speech will gloss over his awful first year