OPINION:
President Biden celebrated national ice cream day by posing for a selfie with a large cone in his hand and posting it to social media.
Not a great look for a president who’s already struggling with a perception that screams “weak.” What is it with this guy and his ice cream, anyway?
As Statista reported in early July, 33% of American adults saw Biden as “very weak” and another 14% as “somewhat weak.”
That’s before this photo.
But it’s after this speech he gave in 2016, at an ice cream factory, no less: “My name is Joe Biden, and I love ice cream. You all think I’m kidding. I’m not.”
It’s his claim to fame.
“Biden munches on ice cream and cherries during Michigan trip,” The New York Post reported in early July.
“Biden makes impromptu ice cream stop in Wisconsin,” The Associated Press reported a few weeks back.
“Watch: President Joe Biden makes impromptu ice cream stop,” The Economic Times wrote, in this same time frame. Really — a video? From a newspaper that by its very name focuses on financial issues?
North Korea is watching. So, too, China. And Russia and Iran and, well, all the rest. They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. But Biden’s taking it too far. It’s one thing for a president to have the common touch — to have the ability to relate to the average Joe and Jane America, to be able to kiss the babies and make the crowd swoon and raise the roof with raucous applause wherever and whenever speaking. But that common touch has to be balanced by toughness, too — else the world of anti-American hostiles get the idea the leadership is, oh, say, doddering and foolish. And weak.
Wielding an ice cream cone is great.
But can Biden wield a hammer of policy when it comes time to defending American principles on the world stage? Sadly, no. America’s enemies are bringing guns and knives and bombs and strategy and deception and cultural Marxism and socialist secularism and propaganda wrapped in pretty gift boxes for children. Biden? Biden is bringing a scoop of creamy vanilla with chocolate chunks. And a cellphone on a selfie stick.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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