On Jan 20 President Joe Biden completes the first year, which has been tumultuous, eventful, dramatic and much else. He has shown resolve to push a highly ambitious agenda on several fronts, but he has faced more political defeats than wins. The pandemic resurgence has added to the great challenges he was already facing (especially doing his job coming in after Trump). The Afghan debacle will remain the highlight of his first year. So is his repeated inability to bring people together across the partisan divide and get things done. But renewed leadership on climate front might be the signature achievement of year one.

Among the successes—

*The $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package for middle-class: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/legislation/2021/01/20/president-biden-announces-american-rescue-plan/

*Smart economic recovery

*The $1.2 trillion bill for much-needed infrastructure rejuvenation, along with emphasis on climate action

*The vaccine push, fully immunizing 63% population

*Filling up the highest number of judicial vacancies for any president in the first year

But then—

*The omicron variant has created new records of infection, putting the administration under great strain

*His strident stance with the vaccine-or-test was struck down by the Supreme Court

*Inflation is at its highest since the 1980s, supply-chain issues are not resolved

*The Build Back Better legislation uncertain: https://taxnews.ey.com/news/2022-0001-congress-returns-as-build-back-better-act-faces-uncertain-path-following-manchin-objections

*His Democrat colleagues too are not often on the same page, not to mention the Republicans. (The infra bill was the only initiative for which Biden managed to create consensus): https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/20/joe-manchin-kill-joe-biden-agenda-or-open-way-build-back-better/

*Partisan divide is showing no signs of getting reduced, any ‘healing touch’ is ineffective against continued aggressive campaigns of Trump supporters: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/01/06/remarks-by-president-biden-to-mark-one-year-since-the-january-6th-deadly-assault-on-the-u-s-capitol/

*Troop withdrawal from Afghan was a unanimous demand, but blame it on failure of diplomacy, intelligence, logistics; the overnight Taliban comeback was a serious failure: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/11/09/biden-was-wrong-on-afghanistan/

*His approval figures are going lower: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/589901-a-year-into-his-presidency-biden-is-polling-at-an-all-time-low

At 78, he was the oldest to enter office: is he a little tired from the hectic schedule, particularly amid the pandemic? Commentators criticize him for not being pragmatic to focus on the doables and aiming for sure-failures, which end up portraying him as less potent than what a US president is expected to be.

Commentary:

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bidens-report-card-year-accomplishments-stalled-priorities/story?id=82331377

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/19/joe-biden-first-year-two-presidencies-527352

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-one-year-07788eba2c1eb84de0edf3dbe3f2d412

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/16/opinion/biden-obama-economy.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/sundaytakebidenfirstyear-presidency/2022/01/15/57c5fbfe-7610-11ec-bc13-18891499c514_story.html

Numbers:

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-climate-afghanistan-joe-biden-health-4d1a010a49e9c3d575b20f4392a9852e