POLITICS: What Biden cost us, Putin must go and other commentary

From the right: What Biden Cost Us
A new WSJ report on Joe Biden’s decline shows he “wasn’t up to the job on day one, let alone
day 1,000,” argues Commentary’s Seth Mandel. Worse, “the global crises that arose during
Biden’s presidency were dealt with by reducing the flow of information to and from the
president.” “We know the president’s aides were avoiding giving him bad news. Did Biden even
know what was really happening on the ground in Ukraine? When the administration froze the
Israel-Hamas war in Gaza for months,” who really ordered it? “The fact that we have to ask the
questions at all” shows “enough of an answer to know that the world paid a dear price to protect
the fragile mental state of the American president.”

Ukraine desk: Putin Must Go
“Putin’s war against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has clearly become personal,”
observe Jonathan Sweet & Mark Toth at The Hill. “He suffers from Ukraine Derangement
Syndrome: A disdain for the Ukrainian people” has “overcome his sense of logic.” “Surrounded
by yes-men, Putin is marching his now largely conscripted pick-up game of an army into
oblivion.” For Ukraine, “submit or face extinction” is “one and the same choice.” “Trump needs to
put an end to Putin’s bluffing and grandstanding,” to demonstrate “to him that he cannot win” by
“ending the sanctuary afforded to Moscow on the battlefield by the Biden administration.”
“Anything less and Putin will not come to the negotiating table, save to buy time and attempt to
snooker Trump into a bad deal.”

White House watch: The End of ‘Never Trump’?
Can “Never Trumpers” make “peace with populism, if not Donald Trump himself?” asks Fred
Bauer at UnHerd. “One of the founding ‘Never Trumpers’, Bret Stephens, has used his latest
column” to “distance himself” from the movement. “On the level of raw politics, Trump’s
conservative critics have strategic incentives to make some populist rapprochement.” “Foreign
policy might also give some Never Trumpers a reason to distance themselves from the
Democratic Party.” “Trump’s surprise win in 2016 gave birth to an elite-led alliance that
portrayed him and his supporters as an existential threat to American democracy.” “Even by its
own standards, that project of existential crisis has a legacy of ashes. Instead, revitalising
American democracy might require learning some of the lessons of populism.”

Libertarian: COVID’s Crime Wave
“Restrictive policies in response to COVID-19 did a huge amount of damage,” notes Reason’s
J.D. Tuccille. But “lockdowns also contributed to a surge in crime that temporarily reversed a
decades-long decline in homicides.” “Most violent crimes” are committed by “teenage boys and
young men in their twenties. Dumping them out of jobs and out of classrooms,” and “often
without money in their pockets,” was “a recipe for disaster.” “The best thing to do?” “Avoid
repeating the mistakes of the past. We need to minimize social disruptions and certainly not
permit government officials to close businesses and schools by decree. A free and prosperous
society, it turns out, is a much happier and peaceful one than what results from the authoritarian
whims of public-health officials.”

Elex desk: Have Dems Learned Nothing?
“After it was shocked by its losses and the GOP’s gains in the 2024 elections, you would think
the Democratic Party might pull back from crazy left-wing proposals,” snarks Zachary Faria at
the Washington Examiner. But it’s “evident the party has not learned its lesson.” “Democrats
running states and cities promise they will make protecting illegal immigrants their No. 1 priority
and that they will fight the Trump administration to keep illegal immigrants in the country.”
“Prominent congressional Democrats” have argued that UnitedHealthcare killer Luigi Mangione
“may have a point.” “Three Senate Democrats are pushing to eliminate the Electoral College.” “It
would be difficult to say that Democrats learned all the wrong lessons from the 2024 elections
because it is clear they have learned no lessons at all.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board