President Biden’s habit of underpromising so he can look like he’s overdelivering, especially when it comes to the battle against COVID-19, may be irking the very same voters he’s trying to keep onside.
Republican strategist John Feehery believes Biden and his team “think they are being clever by playing the expectations game.”
Feehery specifically defined the ploy as “setting low expectations and then easily excelling them,” a tactic Biden appears to have adopted shortly after winning the 2020 election.
“Instead, they look delusional,” Feehery told the Washington Examiner. “Most sane people have been going to small barbecues for months, so setting July Fourth as the date when America is free to grill hot dogs again is just completely nuts.”
BIDEN REMAINS POPULAR BUT COULD BE PEAKING TOO SOON
Feehery’s complaints were echoed in the halls of Congress this week when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell ripped Biden for “trying to rewrite recent history” concerning his COVID-19 response.
“The benchmark of 100 million vaccines in 100 days was not some audacious goal that was met with great skepticism. A million shots per day was just the pace that the Biden administration actually inherited,” McConnell said.
In fact, Biden announced Thursday the 100 millionth coronavirus vaccine dose would be administered on Friday, the 58th day of his term. He had expected to reach that target by day 60.
McConnell also blasted Biden for touting his directive to states to expand vaccine eligibility to all adults by May 1, if not sooner, as is the case for Alaska and Mississippi. The May 1 deadline followed Biden hailing May 31 as the date when the United States would have enough doses to inoculate every adult in the country who wanted the shots. Before the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was approved, that was predicted to be achieved by the end of July.
McConnell claimed the May 1 date was actually a “walk back” after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, forecasted that vaccine eligibility would become “open season” by April.
McConnell’s last complaint hung on Biden’s suggestion last week during his first prime-time television address that there was “a good chance” that “small groups” would be able to “have a cookout and a barbecue” for Independence Day.
“Americans are already getting together in small groups outdoors in blue states and red states, and small towns and big cities. The country is not locked down waiting for July the Fourth,” McConnell countered.
He added that Biden was contradicting his own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advice on physical distancing measures as well.
Former Republican operative-turned-Claremont McKenna College politics professor John Pitney referenced the 1984 cult classic movie, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, to explain Biden’s strategy. Pitney specifically pointed to the scene in which chief engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott admits to Captain James T. Kirk he always multiplied his repair estimates by a factor of four to maintain his “miracle worker” reputation.
“I suspect that voters have caught on. After all, most of us use some version of the tactic in everyday life,” Pitney said.
Biden would sidestep a backlash as long as he continued to overdeliver, according to Pitney. “It’s a heck of a lot better than overpromising and underdelivering,” he said.
Michael Signer, the Democratic former Charlottesville, Virginia, mayor, believes Republican grumblings about Biden’s COVID-19 response rung hollow.
“Instead of calling for practical objectives from President Trump, they stood by while he lied, obfuscated, and fumbled on the virus, laying the sad groundwork for the deaths of over half a million Americans,” he said.
“Now, when the President the American people chose to replace Trump’s failed strategy defines and exceeds specific goals, his opponents can only play politics,” Signer went on. “The American people can see past this silliness, which is why President Biden’s coronavirus strategy is receiving stratospheric approval ratings in the polls.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
On Thursday, Biden credited his deployment of the wartime Defense Production Act, a deal between pharmaceutical rivals, and his use of mobile vaccination sites for expediting his COVID-19 immunization goal.
“This is a time for optimism, but it’s not a time for relaxation,” he said from the White House, warning that the public against being complacent as new variants spread.
