Energy beat: Joe’s Left Hand vs. His Far-Left

To sum up President Biden’s energy policy, the Washington Examiner’s Hugo Gordon recycles a joke Vice President Al Gore used to tell about the right: Team Biden’s “left-hand seems utterly clueless about the mischief his far-left hand” is up to. The administration, for instance, “tells Wall Street to invest in oil companies but changes the rules to make investment unattractive,” helps tie up energy companies in court battles and boosts subsidies for renewables. Meanwhile, “panicked” about the midterms, it “pleads” with OPEC and Venezuela for more oil and releases 180 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — as if such supplies are preferable to “oil lying under our feet in American soil.” Tapping that could strengthen America, weaken its enemies and generate “well-paid American jobs.”

Conservative: Biden Gaffes’ Irreversible Damage

President Biden’s remark that Vladimir Putin can’t remain in power “unsettled allies, fed Mr. Putin’s paranoia, buried the president’s intended message and complicated an already grave situation,” charges The Wall Street Journal’s Karl Rove. “And it’s only the latest in a long string of jarring misstatements” that have “undercut” confidence among voters — as Biden’s plummeting approval numbers show. Worse, they’ve “hurt his image as a strong leader,” which is critical for him to operate both at home and abroad. Now, he and his aides face “enormous challenges,” especially since it’s “difficult to move [approval] numbers in a good direction once a president is viewed as weak.” In 2024, voters from both parties “may be looking for candidates who are more disciplined with their words and younger in years.”

Immig desk: Dems’ Looming Border-Surge Woes

“Immigration is hitting the headlines again — at just the wrong moment for President Biden and his fellow Democrats,” declares The Hill’s Niall Stanage. “March is set to see the highest number of arrests by the Border Patrol of unauthorized immigrants at the southern border ‘in at least 22 years,’ ” with the Department of Homeland Security saying it’s “planning to manage as many as 18,000 attempted border crossings per day,” i.e., “over 500,000 encounters per month — more than double the previous all-time high.” There’s no doubt immigration’s a big issue for American voters: A recent Economist poll found 52% of adults disapproved of Biden’s handling of the issue. Bidenites better act fast before border crossings soar “even higher.”

Legal take: Left’s Ridiculous Recusal Demand

“Democrats should not get away with their shameless political gambit” against Justice Clarence Thomas, thunders Andrew C. McCarthy at National Review. “Justices are not even subject to disqualification over their own activities that bear directly on cases,” let alone their spouses’. The law on “judicial disqualification” focuses on spouses having “financial or legal stakes” in the case. “Ginni Thomas’s conservative political activism” doesn’t cut it. Also, “lawyers . . . know that there are no-go areas” in private conversations and “respect these lines.” A Dem-appointed justice “in the eye of a spousal storm” would no doubt have Dems reminding us of that. So “the smearing of Justice Thomas” is no more than “transparently partisan politics.”

Woke watch: The Road to Race-Based Medicine

Utah and Minnesota abandoned plans to make “race a factor in deciding who receives COVID treatment, but it’s worth asking how such policies could have been passed in the first place,” observes John Sailer at City Journal. “In 2016, the Council on Education for Public Health . . . updated its requirements to emphasize the importance of ‘health equity’ ” and pushed public-health schools to adopt “elements of diversity.” Across the country, schools fell in line. As it turns out, the “purveyors of ‘diversity’ and ‘equity’ share much in common with our public-health establishment,” including “the notion that a better society can be forged through managerial dictates” on such issues. So it’s understandable “the two have now joined forces.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board