# The Biden Administration - the first 1,500 days \[NOT an Afghanistan discussion\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 8, 2020, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057 "2020-11-08T15:09:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 25
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/481 "2021-03-14T01:36:29Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > And although he was far, far, _far_ more truthful than his predecessor, it would be better still if he could be 100% so: [Fact-checking Biden’s first national address - CNNPolitics](https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/12/politics/joe-biden-prime-time-address-fact-check/index.html) Talk about a bunch of nitpicks. Pick one and let’s talk about it if you want, but seriously this is trivial stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/482 "2021-03-14T03:29:05Z")
Any errors or lies feed into the Republican narrative of Biden’s equivalency, or even inferiority, to his predecessor, and that ain’t good. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/483 "2021-03-14T03:43:29Z")
Whatever Biden does or doesn’t do, whether well or badly, it will feed into the Republicans’ narrative. The way he breathes and the _fact_ that he breathes feeds their narrative. Fuck it and them. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/484 "2021-03-14T03:49:19Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > > [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > > > …I’m convinced JB will not, _at all_ , have that avenue for ‘reaching out’. > > Nor would “Yang, Warren, Booker, Harris, Buttigieg, and Sanders.” > > > [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > > > …I can think of at least five or six candidates who would have turned out to have been a **more effective** chief executive. > > My bold. > > “More effective”?? Not a chance. Not to mention, JB has been President for FIFTY DAYS. > > But you’re right. This belongs in its own thread, not here. Here ya go: [How, if at all, would any of the other 2020 Dem candidates be doing better than President Biden?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-if-at-all-would-any-of-the-other-2020-dem-candidates-be-doing-better-than-president-biden/937864) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/485 "2021-03-14T03:52:06Z")
👍🏼 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/486 "2021-03-14T04:32:01Z")
I like what Beau of the Fifth Column has said about Biden. He was very much just “anyone but Trump” before, but he admits he’s surprised that Biden actually seems to be doing more, and trying out progressive ideas. I mean, he’s actually trying to get us out of the Middle East, working reforming the immigration system, and his bill includes stuff that could increase take home pay of US workers up to 50%. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/reHjvbSRuTM/maxresdefault.jpg "Let's talk about Biden, the stimulus, and the midterms....") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reHjvbSRuTM) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/487 "2021-03-14T04:37:10Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > eight years on the executive side where, unlike many vice presidents, he was active in the policy role of the White House under Obama. And that includes seeing how effective “reaching out” to Mitch was during the Obama years. Thanks to Stacey Abrams and Kamala Harris, he’s got some wiggle room. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/488 "2021-03-14T13:47:44Z")
I think Obama learned the lessons of Obama’s first term. The time for centrism and bipartisanship for bipartisanship’s sake was in the late 1990s, when there was sustained prosperity and a relatively stable geopolitical situation; it’s not during a massive recession or unemployment crisis, particularly during a pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/489 "2021-03-14T14:20:34Z")
But seriously, this is some penny ante stuff. He said 65%, when it’s 62.5%. He said experts said this, but some other experts said something else. Semantic quibble over what “you all” means. He said that they were silent, when they were actually lying. Castigating for not using a per capita number even though the per capita number isn’t relevant. Quibble on what it means to die in a war, and even then, only undercuts his claim by a small percent. They certainly read a fair amount into his speech, made assumptions, and then strawmanned the assumptions that they made. The only factual claim that he was wrong on was the 62.5% vs 65%, and that’s a pretty minor complaint. I mean, seriously, this isn’t an example of fact checking, this is an example of CNN putting out clickbait. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/490 "2021-03-14T14:21:56Z")
Especially not when those he is expected to reach out to would rather the country fail than Biden succeed. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/491 "2021-03-14T14:54:49Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I mean, seriously, this isn’t an example of fact checking, this is an example of CNN putting out clickbait. Let’s face it. There’s one way that Joe will NEVER measure up to trumpy: > **[Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims as president. Nearly half came...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-fact-checker-tracked-trump-claims/2021/01/23/ad04b69a-5c1d-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html)** > > The Washington Post Fact Checker’s database of Trump claims, originally launched as a project to track his first 100 days, offers a window into his obsessions. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/492 "2021-03-14T15:34:27Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > …this is an example of CNN putting out clickbait. It is their métier. You have to stick to what you know; for CNN, that is punditry and spin. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/493 "2021-03-14T15:47:00Z")
> “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please,” author Mark Twain once said. > > Distorting facts has been all the rage for a Biden administration that was billed from the beginning as the most honest team assembled since the days of George Washington. The falsifications came to a loud head during the president’s scripted address to the nation on Thursday night, which the Washington Post described as “heavy on emotion and hope, but light on facts.” The New York Times said Biden [“exaggerated elements of the coronavirus pandemic,”](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/us/biden-stimulus-speech-fact-check.html) among other things. [https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/543107-the-media-fact-checkers-finally-come-for-joe-biden](https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/543107-the-media-fact-checkers-finally-come-for-joe-biden) ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/494 "2021-03-14T15:58:41Z")
It’s good to see that political spin has returned to normal parameters. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/495 "2021-03-14T16:32:59Z")
> [@Bootb](#): > > Some of the media fact-checkers apparently are finally waking up. Oh, _The Hill_: the rag that pays Krystal Ball to repeatedly accuse Elizabeth Warren of being a corporate shill and tool of investment banks. That’s basically the progressive counterpart to OANN. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/496 "2021-03-18T02:17:31Z")
> **[Opinion | Biden Wants No Part of the Culture War the G.O.P. Loves (Published...](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/opinion/biden-stimulus-culture-war.html?smid=em-share)** > > The generosity of his $1.9 trillion relief bill has the added benefit of shifting attention where he wants it. > [@](#): > > The Biden administration appears to have adopted a two-pronged strategy to reduce the corrosive impact of hot-button social, cultural and racial issues: first by inundating the electorate with a flood of cash via the $1.9 trillion [Covid relief act](https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1319/text) and second by refusing to engage fractious issues in public, calculating that deprived of oxygen, their strength will fade > … > > Biden has a favorability rating of 52.9 to 41.9, according to the [Real Clear Politics](https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president-biden-job-approval-7320.html) average of the seven most recent surveys, and a [Pew Research](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/03/09/broad-public-support-for-coronavirus-aid-package-just-a-third-say-it-spends-too-much/) poll the first week of March found that a decisive majority of voters, at 70-28 percent, have a positive opinion of the Covid stimulus bill. > … Yeah, baby. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/497 "2021-03-18T22:25:12Z")
Gittin’ 'er done. > **[Biden Administration To Meet Goal Of 100 Million Vaccine Doses On Friday](https://www.npr.org/2021/03/18/978840432/biden-administration-to-meet-goal-of-100-million-vaccine-doses-on-friday)** > > The president said he would announce his next vaccination goal next week. "We need millions more to get vaccinated," Biden said. > President Biden said on Thursday that his administration would reach its initial goal of administering 100 million shots of the COVID-19 vaccines well ahead of his initial 100-day benchmark. > > Biden said that the goal of 100 million shots would be achieved on Friday, which will be 58 days into his presidency. > … ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/498 "2021-03-19T17:57:08Z")
:: steeples fingers :: Excellent. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2021, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/499 "2021-03-20T21:20:21Z")
So how do we think the Administration’s doing on the migrants surge at the southern border? Of course Republicans are making it out to be an unholy tide of COVID-infected refugees overrunning the border, but even DHS says that unauthorized crossings are on pace to hit a 20 year high. Detention facilities are at or exceeding their capacity. This is Biden’s and Democrats big test on what a humane border policy would look like. What should be done? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2021, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057/500 "2021-03-21T01:38:20Z")
More of the same, as well as a concerted diplomatic effort to discourage refugee travel through Central America, and a crash program to build safe, humane detention centers. On another note: [5 White House staffers lose jobs over drugs, marijuana use | AP News](https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-marijuana-jen-psaki-9034ae417f63e1bd8ae6f957fa173ec3) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057.md?page=24) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-biden-administration-the-first-1-500-days-not-an-afghanistan-discussion/925057.md?page=26)