The Biden Administration - the first 1,500 days [NOT an Afghanistan discussion]

What’s just as good, Biden walks the doggies around the White House grounds wearing pre-faded light blue jeans (widely described as “dad” jeans), while Mrs. Dr. Biden goes shopping for Valentine’s goodies at a local Black-owned confectionery while wearing a scrunchie, and the headlines and twitterers go wild proclaiming a new era of “Radical Normality!”

(I haven’t seen yet what the Pubs think of all that, nor have I seen any indication that anyone else gives a shit what Pubs think.)

Watched his CNN town hall last night. Thought it was pretty well done particularly his personal interactions with the questioners on Covid. I like town hall formats for that reason to see how politicians engage besides generic question, answer, question, answer.

One thing I wish he’d work on though is the brevity of his answers. Seems like he was pre-empting follow up questions so a simple question about “how will you tackle the problem X” gets an answer that drags on because he feels the need to talk about Y and Z. Not every question is that deep and it just consumes time in a time-limited event.

It’s like we’re now in a Bizarro world where the President goes about doing his job, acting normal, smiling, being kind and decent to people, not picking fights with, oh, everyone, and is doing his best to get shit done. And yeah, if his answers are long-winded, at least they contain content. Which DJT’s short-attention-span comments did not. Ever. Unless it was to insult someone. Or some nation or population group.

Actually, the last four years were the Bizarro world, and this is the normal world. Even with COVID and power outages (which I am experiencing), it feels so good not to have to worry about what new, petty, senseless piece of destruction the president has wrought while you were away from the news for 15 minutes.

He hasn’t made a wrong move, but I worry that time is his enemy. He needs to get the stimulus passed. He needs to get the vaccine out. I realize a lot of this is not under his control, but people want normal again and he has a limited amount of time to deliver.

It is. But he’s playing it smart. He needs to build the public support that will give him the political capital to force Congress to pass his bills. Either through making Senate Republicans vote yes, or making Senate Democrats neuter the filibuster.

He has until early 2022 to get stuff done.

If I were president, I think I would insist that a ten-year-old ride his or her bicycle up to the north portico to toss my copies of WaPo and the Grey Lady in front of the door so that I could step out there in my fuzzy robe to get them.

@asahi is correct. He must get the vaccine out ASAP, and pass the stimulus as well.

Both of these have to be done in the immediate future, not wait until 2022.

The way I look at it, the Republican party right now kinda reminds me of the way a confused army would like when fighting Napoleon. They’re confused, shaken, retreating, trying to find a safe harbor in which they can regroup and reorganize. They eventually will, and they’ll wage a political counter-attack.

It sort of feels like Biden and Dems are beginning to lose some of that momentum already. The events of January 6th are already fading from public consciousness, now quickly being surpassed by the urgency of inoculation against COVID and getting the economy back on track.

Biden has to get money into people’s bank accounts, and the Dems need to stop worrying about over-spending – just forget that shit, Joe Munchkin!!! Over-spending on stimulus is a good thing b/c Democratic stimulus almost always goes into households, unlike Republican stimulus, which seems to end up in the bank accounts of the donor class.

Yes, I didn’t mean to imply those aren’t needed immediately. Those are emergency measures. I was speaking of issues like voting and tax reform. Those are still urgent, as in they needed to be working them now, but the deadline is early next year.

In 4 days he will have been President for one month.

He has hit the ground running.

And he’s been a terrible president. He’s given no speeches about how great he is or how terrible Republicans are, he’s not gone golfing once, he’s not appointed any family members to executive advisory positions, he’s not promoted any of his own businesses or diverted taxpayer money to them, he’s not insulted any American allies or sucked up to any dictators, and he’s not encouraged his rabid followers to commit insurrection and violence.

What’s the matter with this guy anyway? Doesn’t he know how to President?

He has less than 60 tweets in 30 days. Not one has made a headline. This guy is defective.

I guess Joe didn’t study the job description that Donnie left behind. He is so far behind he will never catch up!

To be fair, it was kind of hard to read through the ketchup stains.

Glad to see this all this started right back up again (or repealing what was repealed)…

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-officially-rejoins-paris-climate-agreement/

I believe it was the inestimable Jay Stewart who once said “COME ON DOWN! UP HERE!”…

:slightly_smiling_face:

In his first major global appearance since taking office, Biden addressed the Munich Security Conference today via video link.

I’m confident the US’s international reputation will repair itself much sooner than many posters here have been apparently thinking, some concerned that even with a Biden presidential victory, the US’s image - for years to come - will be so tarnished beyond repair. I feel strongly otherwise, especially if the 2022 midterms outcomes are favourable.

Cool that that’s an ok source now.

Mighty big if, but I like the optimism.

Sure, I realise the GOP is likely to regain Congress and Senate in ‘22, but Ima bank on the accomplishments that Biden will have to EO his way through in the meantime, hopefully galvanizing voters against much-expected gerrymandering or other state-level oppression tactics that would threaten democrats’ mid-term chances.

When normal is news…

President Joe Biden spoke with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Thursday about the winter storm that has hobbled the state. He “conveyed his support to the people of Texas,” “reiterated that the federal government will continue to work hand-in-hand” with state and local authorities and promised any additional federal disaster support.

On Friday, Biden said he was planning to visit Texas next week, as long as he could do so without complicating relief efforts.

I don’t want to be a burden. When the president lands in any city in America, it has a long tail,” he said.

Nothing about what Biden did was remarkable. It’s standard operating procedure for presidents to support states when there are natural disasters and help as much as possible ― without getting in the way.

My bold.

THAT’S what’s remarkable.

What’s news from the last 4 years is that Biden’s not using this as a photo op or a campaign rally.

I wasn’t a Biden fan, but I have to admit that it’s nice to read the news and NOT have to wonder WTF is going on.