Ever notice that when Joe Biden finds himself in a tough spot, he plays the patriot card?

It’s a shrewd move, politically speaking, because who among us is rooting for their country to fail? Indeed, who among us isn’t stirred by thoughts of American exceptionalism? (Aside from Democrats, we mean. To them, American exceptionalism is no different than British exceptionalism or Greek exceptionalism.)

To be sure, Joe Biden and his handlers spend most of their time doing what Democrats have been doing for years: trying to wreck it, trying to fundamentally transform it, trying to finish the job that Barack Obama began in earnest on January 21, 2009.

But when Joe Biden gets the feeling that his poll numbers aren’t where they should be, or that his objective awesomeness is underappreciated by the American people, that’s when he gets angry and stands up the ol’ “Don’t bet against America” straw man.

He did it again during a speech Wednesday from the East Room of the White House on the one-year anniversary of his signature piece of legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act. It was a fitting moment, now that we think of it, given that the very name of this legislation is a lie.

Apparently, Biden had gotten wind that certain 2024 Republican presidential candidates were saying the country is worse off under his, er, leadership. Never mind the polling that shows just how deeply unpopular Biden and his policies are, nor how somewhere around 70% of the American people think we as a nation are heading in the wrong direction. Never mind all that.

“They’re telling us America is failing,” Biden spouted. “Let me tell you, they’re dead wrong. They’re dead wrong. America isn’t failing. America is winning. And I’ve said a thousand times … there is no quit in America.”

Got that? This president wants you to ignore his corruption, his cognitive decline, his utter incompetence, and instead remember that there’s no quit in America.

Then he snarled: “Name me a single objective we’ve ever set out to accomplish that we’ve failed on. Name me one, in all of our history. Not one!” Biden continued, “It’s never been a good bet to bet against America, and it’s still not a good bet today.”

Well, cancer for one. In fact, didn’t Biden himself personally vow to “end cancer as we know it” during the Obama years?

But, again, this is a really clever rhetorical trick: piggybacking on the greatness of America. In advertising, we call it borrowed equity: enhancing the appeal of the mediocre by tethering it to the exceptional. And we can’t let him get away with it.

Matt Margolis at PJ Media did what everyone else was thinking: He came up with a list of objectives that Joe Biden has set out to accomplish and failed on. The eight-item list won’t surprise anyone: bone-crushing inflation, runaway government spending, Bilk Back Broker, the border calamity, energy independence, the COVID pandemic, the permanent rigging of our electoral system, and a disgraceful cut-and-run from Afghanistan.

In fairness, though, we can think of one thing that Joe Biden set out to accomplish and succeeded on beyond his wildest dreams: self-enrichment. Bestselling author and investigative journalist Peter Schweizer notes that the Biden Crime Family has raked in more than $30 million from individuals with direct ties to Chinese intelligence.

Indeed, when it comes to profiting personally while selling out his country, it’s never been a good bet to bet against Joe Biden.