Biden, resident PINO: President In Name Only

OPINION:

A new poll from the Convention of States Action and the Trafalgar Group found that nearly 57% of American voters think President Biden is a PINO — President In Name Only — and that others, other forces, other sources, are actually in charge.

This would be shocking, save for one thing: We all knew it.

One only had to watch Biden’s prompted, orchestrated but nevertheless stumbling and jagged remarks issued from his basement during campaign season to see he wasn’t fully “there” — mentally speaking, of course. And those who missed that action can still catch the same today, on pretty much any public square the president, the president PINO, that is, speaks from — just read the headlines: “Mocking by U.S. Adversaries Shows Biden Admin Neither Feared nor Respected,” ran one Newsweek headline in March.

Even Democrats and independents, it seems, don’t think Biden is fully capable of leading and instead has more stable behind-the-scenes’ puppet masters pulling his strings, directing his steps, praying he stops before he says too much.

From the survey: Nearly 32% “of Democrat voters do not believe that President Biden is fully executing the duties of his office” and just over 58% “of Independent voters do not believe that President Biden is fully executing the duties of his office.”

Instead, most voters of all political persuasions believe “others are directing the policy and agenda of the Administration,” the poll found.

Which prompts the question: Who?

Certainly the far left of the Democratic Party has taken hold of policy and agenda items; Barack Obama’s team has been recycled to reappear in key Biden White House roles; and social justice and skin color seemed to have been discussed as deciding factors for administration positions as much, if not more, as experience, skill and talent.

But it’s the hidden — the unnamed, the unacknowledged — that most concerns.

How much does China influence Biden’s policy?

It’s one thing for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders to be orchestrating and influencing presidential agendas. It’s another thing entirely for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Unlike two years ago, when Biden mocked the idea of China as a threat to America’s leadership on the world stage — and that the Chinese were in fact “not bad folks, folks,” he “now worries that [the Chinese] are competition for America and not only that — they might win,” The Atlantic just wrote. “This belief underpins the Biden doctrine.”

Welcome to reality, Joe.

Shoulda listened to Donald Trump, who knew this reality at the start of his administration.

But now Biden faces an uphill climb to convince many in his own administration that China’s a threat. 

“Like Biden in 2019,” the Atlantic wrote, “they think that China’s strengths are overstated and that the U.S. can afford to be patient and restrained. They believe that while Washington must stand up for [American] interests, it also needs to quickly transition to a point of peaceful coexistence with China — basically a restoration of the Obama administration’s approach.”

Appease China at all costs? This is the stuff of defeatists.

It’s not a given China will “win” and become the dominant force of the world, as Biden now believes. But surrounding himself with players who not only believe that but want to appease that is a disaster for America and a surefire destruction of the American way of liberty and life.

If Biden truly is a PINO, as most in the American public seem to think, at least according to this one poll, then China is already celebrating. And Americans have more to worry about than mocking.

• 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.