Hi’,
A short diary as a foreigner to share this front page article on the online Swiss public news (RTS, my translation):
“Joe Biden is at Donald Trump’s level [in the polls], which is mind boggling”, Anne Deysine, professor at the Paris-Nanterre University, reacts on the RTS Géopolitis show. For her, the low popularity of Joe Biden “is the product of disinformation” of a whole part of rightwing media. The result: even if his results are “quite positive”, the public only focuses on the problems, especially the chaotic Afghanistan exit.
Since he came to power, Joe Biden successfully vaccinated around 60% of the population to stop Covid. He also launched two ambitious investment plans, the first of which, planning 1,200 billions dollars for infrastructure, having finally been voted in Congress on November 5. The second, named “Build Back Better”, should be examined in the House of representatives this week [sic].
[...]
“Of course, democrats are divided, but we must understand that Joe Biden’s difficulties are due to republicans’ systemic obstruction”, stresses Anne Deysine. “Some republicans don’t dare vote for objectively good projects for the country because they are under pressure, under blackmail from Donald Trump, from McConnell in the Senate and from Kevin McCarthy in the House to prevent Biden from enacting his very ambitious program”, she details.
So yes, the title is deceiving. It’s not Switzerland’s official stance, it’s a French professor from the Sorbonne, in a Swiss show, whose words are now prime news in a whole country as most of Europe keeps watching US politics if not day-to-day, at least every other week.
And that’s a foreign expert stating the obvious out loud.
I should stop at that, but I must also add, everything she says would apply to 2010. Positive results combined with systemic obstruction, disinformation… the only thing new is blackmail and that’s because the Tea Party wasn’t in full motion yet. We know, here, it’s more messy under the hood, but still. That was a headline worth sharing in my opinion.