So last year, I made a presidential tier list, describing how I saw all the presidents. I didn't go into massive amounts of detail on it, but I actually did spend hours going through every president's legacy and rating them on a tier scale from S through F. I tentatively gave Biden an A at the time, and I remember I got some criticism for this online. People thought I was biased and a Biden fanboy. However, at the time, Biden had just recently come into power, was still riding high on that wave of new president energy, and he actually seemed to have a semi progressive agenda with build back better at the time. I admit, Biden was never what I wanted in a president, but I try to be fair, and given he had plenty of positive agenda items he was gunning for and virtually no scandals at the time, he ended up gaming my tier list and getting solidly into A tier.
In retrospect, it might have been "too early" to put him in A tier. While not many presidents got into A tier the ones who did generally speaking had positive legacies. They weren't major game changers in my opinion, like Lincoln, FDR, and Johnson did, but they generally were better than your typical president.
I'm gonna be honest, most American presidents are actually pretty mediocre. My standard weighed the good that they did vs the bad. And your typical president generally...didn't do much. They didn't have amazing legacies, but they didn't screw up either. They were just that steady ship that did a couple okay things and kept their nose clean. Some of the more controversial mid tier presidents had a lot of good going for them, only to be weighed against some bad. But most were just...so so.
The two mid tiers were the B and C tiers, with the B tiers being neutral to slightly positive, while the C tier was slightly negative.
And then you had the low tiers D and F which represented various levels of "failed presidencies" IMO. The F tier being categorically bad, while the D tier being generally bad with some redeeming qualities.
Again, Biden was in A tier, because he had a progressive agenda, and he had no outstanding issues at the time. A year later, Biden is kind of flailing in approval, with his only saving grace being that the GOP is at the level of so awful that he actually makes him look good by comparison. Which is the only reason democratic polls are up. Biden was looking to be the next Jimmy Carter, but because the GOP screwed up with abortion rights and January 6th is back in the limelight, the dems actually have a chance.
Still, if I'm going to be objective...I honestly do think that Biden is the second coming of Jimmy Carter. He is completely floundering at pushing an agenda. He gave up on COVID at the beginning of this year and now people act like it doesn't exist any more. He has been stonewalled on his entire agenda due to "moderates" like Manchin and Sinema shooting him down. We're experiencing inflation at a level not seen since the days of Jimmy Carter. And the "Soviets" (Russians) are invading another country. Is it feeling a bit like 1979? It's feeling a bit like 1979 to me.
Now, in all fairness, Jimmy Carter was not at fault for the crises of his time. I believe he tried to offer decent leadership, but part of the problem was he was stonewalled by congress, part of the problem was that the American people didn't want to hear it because they're a bunch of selfish jerks who want theirs, and part of the problem was Carter just couldn't do anything. He couldn't just free the hostages, and go after the USSR, and get inflation in check, and lower gas prices.
But...the American people wanted results, and he couldn't deliver.
On my tier list, I took a lot of this into account. He got a C rating. He was "okay". Like, I couldn't give him a positive rating because he ultimately failed to address the crises of his time, but I also recognized he was pretty ethical and a lot of it wasn't his fault.
Biden....kind of feels like a "C" president for me too. On inflation, it's not his fault. He completely failed on his build back better agenda, because he got schooled by his own party in congress. He gave up on COVID, not wanting to anger the populace like Carter did. Carter told people to wear sweaters, the people threw him out of office. Biden tried to get people to mask up and get vaccinated, but the American public is just terrible in that sense and he's given up on trying to reason with them.
I'm not sure of him giving up is better or worse. it saves face with the public who would scream about covid regulations going on too long, but honestly, on the principle of the issue, Biden was RIGHT. And the American people are childish and immature, and LITERALLY won't take their medicine. They also follow a crazy person.
On inflation, it's still too early to judge his legacy relative to carter, but I have to acknowledge parallels. Presidents cant magically make the economy better, and Biden seems unwilling to drive the country into recession to stop it. TO be fair, it might be the right idea, given inflation is caused by global supply chain issues, a war in Ukraine and the economic consequences of that, and of course price gauging. On Ukraine, I think Biden is doing the good thing. I'm sorry, but Russia has to be brought back into line here. There has to be consequences of such a brazen act of aggression and I make no apologies for it. BUT, sanctions are arguably contributing to the price of oil, and whether Americans will accept high gas prices to stop a genocide is...questionable. Again, americans aren't really good at taking their medicine.
So...all things considered, is Biden much better or worse than Carter? Nah, I think Biden is a little better, but not enough to bump him up to B tier. While the difference between a B and C tier president isn't much, to compare him to Obama, who was B tier, Obama at least had the ACA under his belt. Biden just feels...lacking. He has no major accomplishments, he has tons of problems, and while he isn't particularly handling the problems badly, he's still yet another mediocre president.
So yeah, I have to shift Biden from an A tier president, down to a C tier. The promise of Biden in his first 100 days has worn off, and we're left with Jimmy Carter 2.0.
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