As the Biden administration falls under greater pressure to improve economic growth and the Democrat Party’s prospects, President Biden seems to be relying mostly on his old boss.
Obama Running a Shadow Government?
Former President Obama will visit the UN COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. This will happen sometime next year to emphasize “significant progress” achieved on global warming since the Paris Accord went into effect.
Likewise, President Biden will attend the Global Leader Summit in Glasgow on November 1 and 2. It’s uncertain whether Obama will attend any of Biden’s cabinet members’ appointments or functions.
Biden and Obama speak “frequently” about a “variety of problems,” as well as personal affairs, according to the White House. However, the regularity of those discussions was not disclosed.
They went from claiming Obama is running the Biden Administration to claiming that Obama was running the Trump Administration in less than 20 minutes pic.twitter.com/kVBV4p4Bel
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 17, 2021
Obama will also be campaigning alongside Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe in the country’s capital of Richmond later this month on October 23. In a region Biden carried by ten points last year, McAuliffe – who is competing for his old job – enjoys a modest, single-digit lead against Republican challenger Glenn Youngkin.
While Obama is the most well-known figure to join McAuliffe in the days leading up to Virginia’s elections on Nov. 2, McAuliffe will also campaign alongside First Lady Jill Biden in Richmond at the end of this month.
With Biden’s approval numbers plummeting, McAuliffe’s lead over Youngkin (a first-time contender and former chairman of a huge private equity firm) began to dwindle over the summer.
Obama Has an Agenda
In a September 27 appearance on ABC’s GMA, Obama supported Biden’s $3.5 trillion budget measure.
“I think anybody who pretends that it's a hardship for billionaires to pay a little bit more in taxes so that a single mom gets childcare support … that's an argument that is unsustainable.” — @BarackObama on Pres. Biden’s $3.5T Build Back Better infrastructure agenda. pic.twitter.com/L5jVYF4w65
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 28, 2021
“You’re speaking about us ramping up spending cash on childcare tax breaks — making them last to support parents who have needed assistance for a long time,” Obama said.
“You want to improve the efficiency of our system; you’re talking about reconstructing a lot of buildings, highways, bridges, and ports to make them more resistant to climate change. Also, we should begin to invest in the energy efficiency necessary to combat climate change.”
It’s unknown if the pair’s impending meeting is part of a larger effort to boost Biden and the Democrat Party’s position before the 2022 midterms. An inquiry from Fox News was met with silence by the White House.
In a Quinnipiac survey issued on October 6, the Biden administration’s approval rating was just 38 percent. Disapproval sat at 53 percent, down from a 42 percent-50 percent approval/disapproval ratio in September.
During his first six months in the White House, Biden’s approval numbers were in the low-to-mid 50s. However, the government’s popularity began to dwindle in August, following Biden’s widely panned ability to handle the tumultuous US exit from Afghanistan.
A spike in COVID-19 cases this summer (among mostly the unvaccinated) resulted in the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, as the country continues to fight the coronavirus.
