As I said, I would make terrible politician but I do make an adequate voter and I’m capable of assessing who I do and do not find inspiring in a leader.
Obama was, Hilary Clinton was not, nor (In my opinion) is Biden. Nothing in that Q and A (that was selected by someone else) suggests otherwise.
Fine if you think differently but the general tone of the responses here are merely defensive of Biden and few are highly singing his praises. I’m sure he’s adequate, I’m certain that he’s preferable to Trump but I’ve seen little to suggest he’s much more than a placeholder.
It was always the case that, no matter who the democrats elected they would look good in the aftermath of the Trump shitshow. The right side of mediocrity feels pretty good (if that is what he is, the jury must surely be still out) but it is surely a fair concern that it may not be attractive enough at the next election?
Do you think he’s the best democrat for the job? I’m not embedded in US culture and media but I get the impression that your acceptance of “mediocrity” is pretty widespread. Am I wrong on that?
For me, personally, I will say yes. He has tons of experience and I am a moderate, a center-left guy who is not champing at the bit to push everything far to the left. He’s basically my kind of democrat. (Keep in mind, I’ve been a conservative most of my adult life and have only recently transitioned away from that so that’s where I’m coming from.)
I enthusiastically voted for him, and he has been a pleasant surprise from my perspective. I was expecting to hear countless rhetorical gaffes and hear reports of him saying unintentionally offensive stuff (which he was prone to as Vice President) but I’m not aware of anything of note. He must have some pretty good coaches and/or writers helping him out.
You must mean very different things than I mean by “dynamic” and “inspiring.” He quite literally has inspired a death-cult of followers, people willing to sacrifice their loved ones to prove their loyalty; and he’s infamous for his dynamism in appearances, going off-script on rambling tirades, shouting and cursing then muttering and falling to a gentle mocking tone, finding the biggest laugh-lines and pursuing them. Trump is absolutely a dynamic, inspiring demagogue.
I agree that Biden isn’t dynamic or inspiring. What I disagree with is that that’s a criticism.
If I were him I would use my pen to waive the $10,000 of student loan debt now and if it gets challenged and legally ruled outside his domain to do that then at least he can say he tried. Then I would try and craft some more executive orders while BBB is in logjam.
I think what he did with getting a significant enough crossover from moderate Republicans to support the bipartisan infrastructure bill was excellent leadership and particularly because he left no stone unturned in terms of negotiating in good faith even when it frustrated members of his own party. The infrastructure bill will do a lot of good. On its own it is not enough and hopefully BBB will get through.
If we were to compare with Trump, he had a bigger senate majority with Republicans for the first two years of his presidency as well as a Republican House and Democrats willing and eager to get an infrastructure deal agreed. It was actually Trump who shot that down. He didn’t lead on negotiations and then pulled the plug on any deal ahead of the midterms. So Biden has got one up on Trump there for sure. But as I said it is not enough without BBB and he basically admitted as such when he made the decision to address the progressives in congress before the infrastructure deal passed. Obama wasn’t one to do backroom dealing and Biden as vice president filled the gap so I expected him to do the same as president. What I will say is that I wish he went on the attack more. When he was vice president he was the one the Obama campaign in 2012 sent to blue-collar communities to sell the first term in a fiery tone and respond to the Republican critics while Obama stuck to his conciliatory tone of hope. I don’t think Biden suits the conciliatory tone at all. I think he needs to start getting his own party base fired up. He was the guy who coined the 2012 theme “Osama Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive”. For all the people who called Obama a weak appeaser it responded that he was the commander-in-chief who ordered the mission to take out the most wanted man in the world. For all the critics of his economic policy it was a reminder of what he inherited from a Republican president and what his bail-out package helped do to protect industry and workers in America. It was the last snappy, succinct campaign mantra from the Democrats.
I always enjoyed the Kathryn Madigan comedy bit on how Biden was her favourite politician when he was Veep. “Don’t overreach. Veep. All the booze, none of the responsibilities. Who needs the headaches? Air Force Two? Nothing wrong with Air Force Two. Same plane. More relaxed.”
