Biden’s Bombs Big at UN

There were two reactions that suggest that President Biden’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly bombed.  

The first reactions were from the media personalities who would be expected to spin the speech in favor of Biden.  As expected, they were not overtly critical, but one could say that the President’s remarks were “damned by faint praise” – as the expression goes.  Their spin was as bland as the speech, itself.  They more or less repeated what Biden said without a lot of enthusiasm.  If anyone had called it a great speech, I did not find them as I cruised the stations.

There was a lot of interpreting what Biden was “signaling” in various portions of his speech – and opinions of what he meant varied.  That, in and of itself, shows that there was a lack of specificity.  He was merely offering up a wonderfully generalized wish list – hoping to solve every human problem. 

According to the Biden policies, America would engage in melancholy diplomacy to avoid another Cold War … to bring peace to the middle east … to alleviate the suffering of the masses due to war, hunger, disease … to defeat climate change … to come to the aid of minorities, women, gays … and to smite the Covid Pandemic.  zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

You must give the guy credit.  He gave promise to be the problem solver – if not for every person on earth, at least every left-wing interest group.  

What he did not address was how he would do any of those things.  What is he going to DO about the deadly oppression in Afghanistan … the tens of thousands at or heading to the southern border … Chinese expansionism and illegal trade practices … those North Korean ICBMs … Hamas firing rockets to kill Israeli civilians?  You know, those real problems that cannot be resolved by aspirational hopes and dreams.  

On the other hand, the criticism of the speech was blistering – especially from the international community.  President Macron of France ignored commenting – but the recalled French ambassador let it be known that the Franco-American rift was not inconsequential.  Which is understandable since Macron is not happy with Biden – so UNhappy that he withdrew the French ambassador.

Nile Gardiner, of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, called the speech “empty rhetoric” and a bunch of “hot air.”  Judging from the various post-speech comments, one might conclude that Biden’s remarks were not well received by the world community.

In a sense, Biden said all the right things – all the wouldn’t-it-be-nice things.  So why did the speech bomb so badly?

The first problem is that it was a typical Biden speech – filled with his typical aspirational generalizations that proposed the solving of all international problems.  To make that kind of speech effective you have to have something Biden does not – credibility.

How about that threat Biden made — that America would use military force when necessary – that evergreen allusion to America’s alleged military strength.  That had to be a laugh line – but it got no laughs.

When he talked about fighting terrorism — even in Afghanistan, the logical response was … WHAT!  Didn’t you just surrender to one of the worst terrorist organizations in the world?  Didn’t you cause the crisis at the southern border?  Didn’t you signal that America was not about to involve its military on behalf of other nations?

The only substance in Biden’s speech had to do with money.  He did use the occasion to dangle billions of dollars of American taxpayer money in front of the world leaders.  For them, that was probably the high point of the speech.  At least Biden is not shutting down the American money spigot.

His offers of money is reminiscent of the Mafia protection racket.  We will give you money if you don’t hurt us.  But then, I was raised in Chicago.

For all its weaknesses, Biden’s speech was probably the best he could do because outside of an aspirational wish list, he has nothing to offer but one foreign policy failure and misstep after another.  Biden’s address to the UN also demonstrates why he avoided being questioned in public more than any President in modern times.  He does not have any good answers.

So, there ‘tis.