Biden Is Flailing, Literally and Figuratively

After Joe Biden bitterly attacked Donald Trump only days before the inauguration, I urged the president-elect on these pages to follow Ronald Reagan’s model by rising above intemperate remarks. Mr. Biden could “be the one who isn’t petty, small and spiteful. He can stay out of squabbles, be a statesman, show honor, demonstrate how someone truly worthy of the office behaves.”

A year later, he has failed to meet that standard. Worse, President Biden appears bizarrely determined—as he did in Georgia last week—to rupture goodwill among his fellow citizens by descending to lower levels of anger and deceit. He apparently doesn’t see that his embrace of rancor and division has contributed to the 30-point collapse in his approval ratings.