“Without funds how do you fight the elections,” asked Arun Singh, former ambassador to the US. He was answering questions on stratnewsglobal’s The Gist show, on President Joe Biden’s decision not to contest for a second term.
As Ambassador Singh noted, without funds and many of the big donors had stopped funding the Democratic Party, that was the critical enabler,
In his view, it was a difficult decision to take, to admit that this is the end of his career. Do you see it in happening in sport or for that matter in politics?
But Joe Biden has been in politics for a long time, yet in the run-up to the 2016 election he was nudged by the party leadership not to contest and step aside in favour of Hillary Clinton, who lost to Donald Trump.
Given that, he probably felt he was being boxed in again, but with the opinion polls indicating otherwise, that he was trailing and trailing even more badly after the June debate with Trump, and then he contracted Covid.
His legacy: “I think Biden brought constitutional norms back into governance, then into politics. This is important if the US wants to project itself as the shining light on the hill for others to emulate,” Singh said.
Biden also moved back from the damaging relationship Trump had with allies and partners and was able to revitalise those relations. He has also not reversed the move towards de-risking or decoupling from China. This is important as in Europe there is a tendency to see China in less threatening terms.
“Biden has taken measures to enhance building infrastructure and domestic production, get semiconductor manufacturing going in the US, which has enhanced US competitiveness vis a vis China.”
Tune in for more in this conversation with Arun Kumar Singh, India’s former ambassador to the US.
