What is potentially so damaging for President Biden and Democrats isn’t so much the substance of the decision to pull out of Afghanistan. After all, any chance of the conflict turning out well ended about 15 years ago. It was the shambolic execution of it. The intelligence community, Pentagon officials, the State Department, and the West Wing all likely share some culpability. But as President Truman said, “The buck stops here.”
In terms of politics, what will all of this mean? On the one hand, the 2022 midterm election is 63 weeks away. Few events have a shelf life quite that long. More broadly, however, the political danger for Biden is that the issue raises questions of competence. History shows that when voters begin to question a president’s competence, confidence is very hard to restore. That toothpaste is hard to get back into the tube. CONTINUED
Charlie Cook
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