AFP

So what do Americans see in Joe Biden — a doddery has-been whom even his own party doesn’t want around, or an improbable superhero? After an extraordinary week in Washington politics, the answer is a bit of both.

The 79-year-old’s political obituary has been issued more times than can be counted since he took office in 2021 amid the political wreckage of Donald Trump’s presidency, a pandemic and fear of economic disaster.

Now he’s fighting back. Or at least his alter-ego, a comically sinister cartoon character dubbed “Dark Brandon” is.

In political nerd circles, the meme has been doing the rounds — and it started going viral on Twitter this week as Biden notched win after against-the-odds win.

The “Dark Brandon” character was originally invented on Twitter by depressed leftists, angry that their centrist president was failing to get things done. They called him Brandon in a nod to a separate, vulgar Republican meme using the same name — and added death ray eyes.

But all of a sudden, mainstream Democrats are embracing “Dark Brandon” as their own, rebranding him from ineffectual grandfather figure to a kind of political terminator.

“Dark Brandon cannot be stopped,” reads one caption over a portrait of Biden with deeply tanned skin and fiery yellow eyes.

Another version depicts a photoshopped Biden capturing lightning in his hands, white light shooting from his eyes.

Why the giddiness?

Check the headlines:

– Friday, Biden gets a blockbuster jobs report showing US unemployment back to a half-century low.

– Late Thursday, the final holdout Democratic senator, Kyrsten Sinema, blesses a vast spending package for historic investment in fighting climate change, as well as lowering costs in the ruinously expensive health system.

– Monday, Biden announces the United States has killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the last big name of the 9/11-era Al-Qaeda leadership.

– A few days before that, Congress passes a $52 billion investment package boosting semiconductor manufacturing. Oh, there’s also this week’s bill passed to compensate military veterans exposed to toxins, a cause dear to Biden’s heart.

And all that with a tiny Democratic majority in the House of Representatives and only one extra vote in the Senate.

Biden isn’t the reincarnation — as he reportedly would like to be — of his hero Franklin D. Roosevelt, who rebuilt the United States in the Great Depression, tweeted Slate political writer Jordan Weissmann.

“But as of now it looks like Biden’s first term could be on par w/ Obama’s when it comes to significant achievements, and with a much smaller majority.”

– Or lame duck? –

Not so fast say Republicans, some of whom literally portray Biden as a mentally incompetent puppet of far-leftist handlers.

Ronny Jackson — a former White House physician who famously praised Trump’s “good genes” and suggested the obese Republican had the capacity to live to 200 — has caused a stir by going on Fox News and other right-wing outlets to diagnose Biden with “cognitive failures.”

But even setting aside the smears about Biden’s health, there’s no denying that a large majority of Americans — from left and right — don’t think he’s on the right track.

They blame him for Democratic infighting in Congress, for declaring victory too soon over Covid last year, for the ugly exit from Afghanistan, and for four-decades-high inflation.

And they don’t want him to stick around.

Only 18 percent of voters want Biden to run for a second term in 2024, according to a fresh Yahoo News/YouGov poll.

The poll gives Biden a 35 percent overall approval rating, with just 30 percent on the economy, and only 26 percent believing he is “up to the challenges facing the US.”

Most surprising — or, if you’re Biden, worrying — is that the naysayers include a growing number of Democratic members of Congress.

Usually, party support for an incumbent president to seek a second term is automatic. To challenge is almost unthinkable.

But when it comes to Biden, who would be a record 86 years old by the end of a second term, even high-ranking allies are getting cold feet.

Axios counts nearly 20 elected Democratic officials who have recently refused to back a second term.

One congresswoman, Carolyn Maloney, coyly answered that “I happen to think (Biden) won’t be running.”

To which the White House says nonsense. “The president intends to run in 2024,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has repeatedly declared.

The “Dark Brandon” vs lame duck debate goes on.

China said Friday it was ending cooperation with the United States on a litany of key issues including climate change, anti-drug efforts and military talks, as relations between the two superpowers nosedive over Taiwan.

Beijing has reacted furiously to a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, which it claims as its territory and has vowed to retake — by force if necessary.

It has since Thursday encircled the self-ruled, democratic island with a series of huge military drills that have been roundly condemned by the United States and other Western allies.

And Friday saw its foreign ministry hit back further against the United States, suspending talks and cooperation on multiple agreements between the two — including on climate change.

The world’s two largest polluters last year pledged to work together to accelerate climate action this decade, and vowed to meet regularly to “address the climate crisis”.

But that deal now looks shaky in light of China’s latest move.

Raising the alarm, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the two superpowers must continue to work together — for the world’s sake.

“For the secretary-general there is no way to solve the most pressing problems of all the world without an effective dialogue and cooperation between the two countries,” Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

In Washington, the White House summoned China’s ambassador to condemn Beijing’s “irresponsible” behaviour over Taiwan, a senior US official said Friday.

Taiwan has also condemned Beijing’s response to the visit, with premier Su Tseng-chang calling for allies to push for de-escalation.

“(We) didn’t expect that the evil neighbour next door would show off its power at our door and arbitrarily jeopardise the busiest waterways in the world with its military exercises,” he told reporters.

Pelosi — who Beijing also hit with sanctions — has defended her trip to Taiwan, saying Friday that Washington would “not allow” China to isolate the island.

– ‘Our motherland is powerful’ –

Beijing has said its military exercises will continue until midday Sunday, and Taipei reported that 68 Chinese planes and 13 warships crossed the “median line” that runs down the Taiwan Strait on Friday.

AFP journalists on the Chinese island of Pingtan saw a fighter jet flying overhead, prompting tourists to snap photos.

A Chinese military vessel sailing through the Taiwan Strait was also visible, they added.

China’s drills involved a “conventional missile firepower assault” in waters east of Taiwan, the Chinese military said. 

And state broadcaster CCTV reported that Chinese missiles flew directly over Taiwan — a major escalation if confirmed.

On Pingtan, local tourists proudly extolled Beijing’s military might against its much smaller neighbour.

“Our motherland is powerful. We are not afraid of having war with Taiwan, the US or any country in the world,” Liu, a 40-year-old tourist from Zhejiang province, told AFP.

“We hope to unify Taiwan soon,” he added. “We don’t want to start a war, but we are not afraid of others.”

Wang, a businesswoman, was more sanguine about prospects for cross-strait ties.

“I hope China can unify Taiwan, but I don’t want war,” she said. “I hope this issue can be solved in a peaceful way.”

– ‘Significant escalation’ –

The scale and intensity of China’s drills have triggered outrage in the United States and other democracies.

“These provocative actions are a significant escalation,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after talks with Southeast Asian foreign ministers at an ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh.

“The fact is, the speaker’s visit was peaceful. There is no justification for this extreme, disproportionate and escalatory military response,” he added.

China’s foreign minister countered by warning Washington not to escalate tensions.

“America’s habit is to create a problem and then use this problem to achieve its goals. But this approach will not work with China,” Wang Yi told a press conference on the summit sidelines.

“We want to issue a warning to the US not to act rashly and not to create a bigger crisis.”

Japan has lodged a formal diplomatic complaint against Beijing, with five of China’s missiles believed to have landed in its exclusive economic zone. 

On Friday, Japan’s foreign ministry said China cancelled a planned bilateral meeting on the ASEAN summit sidelines. 

And Australia — which has a troubled relationship with China, its largest trading partner — condemned the drills as “disproportionate and destabilising”.

The manoeuvres are taking place along some of the world’s busiest shipping routes, used to disseminate the global supply of vital semiconductors and electronic equipment produced in East Asia.

The US jobs market grew much faster than expected in July, lifting employment back to pre-pandemic levels, in news welcomed by President Joe Biden as he faces tough midterm elections — but which also fuels concerns over sky-high inflation.

Even the White House had predicted job gains would slow last month, which Biden had said was part of the natural downshift after the rapid rebound of the world’s largest economy from the pandemic downturn.

Instead, US job growth jumped in July, as the economy added a surprising 528,000 positions, more than double what economists were expecting, according to official data released Friday. That took the jobless rate back to the pre-pandemic level of February 2020.

“Today, the unemployment rate matches the lowest it’s been in more than 50 years: 3.5%,” Biden said in a statement.

“More people are working than at any point in American history … there’s more work to do, but today’s jobs report shows we are making significant progress for working families.”

On top of the hiring surge last month, the Labor Department report said the outsized job gain in June was revised higher, as was May, adding a total 28,000 positions to the initial data.

Meanwhile, the closely-watched report showed wages jumped in July — with average hourly earnings up 15 cents from June — stoking concerns about a possible wage-price spiral. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 5.2 percent.

That’s good for families struggling to make ends meet as they face soaring prices for groceries and gas, but could drive firms to raise prices further.

With inflation topping nine percent, the highest in more than 40 years, the Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates aggressively to cool the economy, and economists now say a third consecutive three-quarter-point hike is likely in September.

– ‘Wow’ –

After recent data showed GDP contracted for the second consecutive quarter — causing many to say the economy is in recession — US stocks had been gaining ground due to investor optimism that the Fed would be able to dial back its inflation-fighting efforts.

But Wall Street opened sharply lower following the jobs report, amid concerns about coming rate hikes.

With the latest increase, total non-farm employment recovered to its pre-pandemic level, the data showed, and hiring topped 430,000 in the past three months.

KPMG economist Diane Swonk’s initial reaction: “Wow.”

“This report pushes the Fed towards a 75 basis point move AGAIN in September,” she said on Twitter.

From zero at the start of the year, the Fed has raised the benchmark borrowing rate four times, and pledged to continue its war on inflation.

And central bankers this week have made it clear that investor optimism about a possible downshift was misplaced.

“Recession is now less of a worry. Inflation is more of a worry,” Harvard economist Jason Furman tweeted. “The Fed will likely need to do more.”

The central bank will get two more employment reports and multiple inflation reports before its next policy meeting in mid-September.

While employers for months have been struggling to find workers — with nearly two open positions for every unemployed person in the work force — job gains have continued.

Hiring was robust in leisure and hospitality and health care, which each adding 96,000 or more in july, while manufacturing and construction gained at least 32,000.

Builders in particular have been under pressure as the struggle to meet high demand for construction, especially homes, but employment in the sector is now back to its pre-pandemic level, the report said.

But there were signs of strains as well. The number of people working part time for economic reasons, which dropped sharply in June, rebounded in July. And a growing number of workers are taking on second jobs, including 403,000 with two full-time positions.

The share of people in the labor force has been stuck at around 62 percent, and some economists are pointing to the impact of long-Covid, which is keeping potential workers on the sidelines.

Kathryn Bach of the Brookings Institution said she believes there could be as many as four million people prevented from working due to the effects of Covid-19.