In The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future, political reporter
The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future.
Whatever critics might like to say about Joe Biden – that he lacks gravitas or is just too old – there can be no doubt that he has been one of the most successful politicians of his generation, first as a senator, then as Vice President, and finally in beating Trump in 2020 where Hilary Clinton failed in 2016. Moreover, if the author of this not uncritical study is to be believed, he has not done a bad job as President either. Coming to power in the middle of a pandemic, and only three weeks after the January 6th attack on Congress, he has at least steadied the ship of the State, without, however, overcoming the US’s deep divisions.
Coming to power in the middle of a pandemic, and only three weeks after the January 6th attack on Congress, [Biden] has at least steadied the ship of the State, without, however, overcoming the US’s deep divisions.
But Biden has also brought something else to the table that previous Democrats – like the cerebral Obama and the crowd-pleasing Clinton – did not: a belief that the Democrats had to do more than just manage globalisation. Rather, they had to be bold enough to stand up for those working people “without college degrees” and use the power of government to rebuild the American economy from the ground up. Thus far, the strategy has worked reasonably successfully, and might even deliver Biden a second term.
For a book which is much stronger on domestic politics than the world outside the US, Foer nonetheless does a fair job in assessing Biden’s various foreign policy challenges, the most long-term of which is China – and here, at least, he has something in common with Trump – but the most immediate, of course, being Putin’s Russia.
After the fiasco that was the withdrawal of the US’s military presence in Afghanistan in 2021, Biden dared not fail. And according to Foer, he didn’t.
This is a story that has been told many times before. However, Foer tells it well. After the fiasco that was the withdrawal of the US’s military presence in Afghanistan in 2021, Biden dared not fail. And according to Foer, he didn’t. In fact, having concluded by October that year that Russia was planning an invasion, the Biden team acted in a most decisive fashion by letting Putin know that Washington knew precisely what Moscow was up to. Thereafter, his team did everything it could to warn Putin of the possible consequences of an invasion – he even sent his CIA chief to Moscow to meet Putin – while making sure it did not hand the Russian leader a pretext for attacking Ukraine. The trick was to do this while at the same time reassuring Ukraine and its President, Volodmyr Zelensky of US support.
Relations with Zelensky were not always easy, though they were nowhere near as disastrous as they had been under Trump. Most obviously, Biden and his team failed to persuade the Ukrainian President that Moscow was actually going to invade.
As Foer shows in some of the more revealing sections of the book, relations with Zelensky were not always easy, though they were nowhere near as disastrous as they had been under Trump. Most obviously, Biden and his team failed to persuade the Ukrainian President that Moscow was actually going to invade. Zelensky moreover always seemed to be asking for more than Biden could deliver and was forever complaining (according to Foer at least) that the US wasn’t doing enough to support Ukraine, either by allowing it into NATO, or by supplying it with all the most up-to-date military equipment. As more recent events have shown, these are arguments that look set to run well into the future as the war grinds on towards its third year.
Foer’s volume only covers the first two years of the Biden presidency and leaves the story hanging on a somewhat optimistic note in late 2022. Whether he would be so optimistic a year on given Biden’s still very low ratings is not so clear. Nor is it at all clear how he would write about the impact the deepening crisis in Israel and the impact its war against Hamas might have on the presidential race. But it could be significant given Biden’s determination to support Israel and “hug Bibi [Netanyahu] tight”. Indeed, with many in the US – including its around one million Muslim voters and a large tranche of younger people – asking whether they are still willing to vote for a party whose leader has thus far has been reluctant to call for a ceasefire, Biden may come to rue the day that he got quite so close to “Bibi”.
In 2024, the Democrats will need every vote they can muster. It would be ironic if a war the US did not anticipate, in a region it felt was beginning to settle down, turned out to be decisive and delivered victory to its opponents.
The outcome of the race for the White House in 2020 was in the end determined by just under 45,000 votes in three key swing states out of five. In what promises to be an even tighter race for the White House in 2024, the Democrats will need every vote they can muster. It would be ironic if a war the US did not anticipate, in a region it felt was beginning to settle down, turned out to be decisive and delivered victory to its opponents. We are often told by political scientists that foreign policy never determines the outcomes of US elections. In 2024 it just might.
- This review first appeared at LSE Review of Books.
- Image Credit: Executive Office of the President of the United States via Picryl.
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- Note: This article gives the views of the reviewer, and not the position of USAPP – American Politics and Policy, nor of the London School of Economics.
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