Is the thread title meant to be ironic in that 1500 days is longer than a single presidential term?
You’re giving me waaaay too much credit for subtlety here. First of all, lazy, and second, didn’t feel like actually coming up with a precise number of days because no matter what number I stated, some pedant here would find fault with it.
But mostly, because we’re discussing his presidency before it has actually started, and the total might or might not be in the vicinity of 1,500 days. We’ll probably still be discussing it after it’s over. I’ll leave it up to you to calculate the exact number of days. 
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The answer is already dividing centrists—who believe that Biden has no choice but to seek agreements with congressional Republicans—from progressives, who fear that he will sap his momentum and demoralize his coalition if he spends weeks on what could prove to be fruitless negotiations over COVID-19 relief and other subjects. The divide is not only ideological but generational too: Compared with Biden, who came of age in the more collegial Senate of the 1970s and ’80s, younger congressional Democrats forged by the unrelenting partisan warfare of the modern Congress—a group some Democrats think includes Vice President–elect Kamala Harris—are generally less optimistic about finding common cause with Republicans.Biden will obviously need to be more cooperative with Republicans if the GOP maintains its Senate majority than if Democrats control the chamber by winning both of the Senate runoffs in Georgia next month. But even if Democrats achieve a narrow 50–50 majority (with Harris casting the tie-breaking vote), Biden will face ongoing questions about how much he’ll compromise his agenda in order to win the 60 votes required to pass most legislation.
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He HAS to go into this believing he can work with them. To start out with a chip on his shoulder (however much he may be entitled) would be counter-productive. And yes, he will have to compromise. Politics is about compromise. But TO compromise, both sides have to talk.
Four years with one leap day = 1,461. Add in the transition and you were damn close.
There are always a lot more horses’ asses than there are horses.
Champ and Major Biden wish everyone a Merry Christmas! (40-sec video - put the sound on)
This is a decent gesture. Waiting to hear how people will find fault with Biden for doing this.
On the evening before he is sworn into office, President-elect Joe Biden plans to lead a solemn memorial service in the nation’s capital to honor the Americans who lost their lives to COVID-19.
Nearly 20 million people in the U.S. have contracted the coronavirus since the start of the crisis and more than 340,000 have died ― grim statistics that reflect a sluggish and haphazard response by the federal government under outgoing President Donald Trump.
Beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 19, just after sunset, Biden will host a ceremony around the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool to remember the dead. The Presidential Inauguration Committee is encouraging local leaders around the country to join at that time by illuminating buildings and ringing church bells.
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Trump ordered flags lowered to half-staff on Memorial Day to recognize COVID-19 deaths, but Biden’s Lincoln Memorial ceremony will be the first federal tribute of its kind to individuals who have lost their lives in the pandemic. It likely will present a stark contrast with Trump’s handling of the health crisis, which has been criticized for lacking empathy.After his release from Walter Reed medical center, where he was treated for COVID-19 in October, Trump called on Americans not to allow the virus to “dominate” their lives, prompting families of coronavirus victims to accuse the president of minimizing their pain and loss.
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A few deaths in the family? Just get over it.
This memorial* to the covid dead - that is what a fuckin leader does.
*originally typo’ed that as “memeorial”, which made me think - no way - am I brilliantly coming up new words again?
Pressed for time, didn’t read the thread so please excuse repetition, but the new Democratic government needs to increase the size of the House, restore the Voter Rights Act and pass the Fair Representation Act within the year. They could easily lose one or both houses of Congress in '22 and an opportunity like this one might not present itself for several more election cycles after that (the FRA enhances their chances of keeping the House in '22 as well as ends gerrymandering for good).
I know, I know, there’s LOTS to do. Covid response, health care in general, tax and regulatory reform. Which all supports a bigger House. Dems have to make hay until and if a permanent left-leaning electorate fully arrives on the scene.
Even with control of Congress, that’s an ambitious schedule, particularly increasing the size of the House.
I gotta run for 90 minutes but how so?
From the “Hopes for Biden Presidency” thread:
To wit:
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No one should be working harder to tamp down the unrealistic expectations raised by this sort of commentary than Biden. He served in the Senate the last time it was split 50-50, in early 2001. So he’ll vividly recall how Republicans, who then held the tie-breaking vote in the form of Vice President Dick Cheney, had to cut a power-sharing deal with his Democratic Party to proceed. Biden is a 36-year veteran of an exclusive club that prides itself on its ability to exasperate and foil the executive branch.
…This is the way the founders planned it: They designed the Senate to be a giant speed bump in the lawmaking process.
…That group includes Biden, who clearly would rather master the Senate the old-fashioned way, through relationships. The question is whether they still count for anything in a chamber whose members spend more time on jet planes and at fundraisers than they do socializing with one another — and where partisan polarization has increased in the decade since Biden left.
…And about Biden’s whopping 50-plus-Kamala Harris majority: Let’s not forget that the Democrats are hardly a reliable voting bloc, running the ideological gamut from democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) to centrists who need to win in Republican states, such as Manchin and Jon Tester (Mont.).
Biden’s best chance for accomplishing anything may come from what happened Wednesday at the Capitol. Will the shock prove grievous enough to restore something of the comity that marked his time in the Senate, when bipartisanship and compromise were not dirty words? There are at least some signs he could “enjoy,” if that is the word, the most harrowing of presidential honeymoons.
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Sadly, I have a feeling that the shock and disgust over the events of the last few days will fade, and it will be back to bare-knuckle fighting almost immediately, including within the Democratic party. I hope I’m wrong.
As I’ve said elsewhere, while it’s always better to be in the majority, a 50-50 Senate is also a tremendous risk to Democrats. They’re now nominally “in control” of Washington, and they’ll be held accountable by their own voters and voters more broadly for what they do and do not accomplish. Voters aren’t going to care about “process arguments” that Democrats weren’t able to pass legislation because they couldn’t get the votes to invoke cloture on the motion to move to consideration of zzzzzzzz. . .
I also didn’t read the first part of the thread, so apologies for that, but I was reading this article and thought this might be a good place for it.
Biden Demands Trillions in New Aid, Renews $2,000-Checks Goal Bloomberg
Biden says the he’ll lay out the details of his proposal on Thursday, so I’ll be looking for that. But it looks like he’s making good on his word that he’ll be pushing for a $2K stimulus check. The chances are better today than they were 2 weeks ago.
He also plans to roll out the coronavirus vaccine faster than the current plan which is to hold some vaccine in reserve, so that’s good too.
We’ll see what happens, but at least the words are moving in the right direction.
Had to look this one up.
From here:
I assume this means that three to five districts would be combined into a single district that would then choose the same three to five representatives, thus keeping the total number of representatives the same…
How does increasing the size of the House help when the Senate is still dominated by low-population states?
It makes the House more representative and that’s better for the electorate. We can’t solve the problem of the Senate – if you actually regard it as a problem (I do) – without amending the constitution but we can still improve what we can.
This is from a New York Times newsletter that I get about COVID. There are links included.
The Biden pandemic plan
President-elect Joe Biden will assume the presidency in nine days, and with it the responsibility of fighting a raging pandemic that is killing more than 3,000 Americans a day.
Democrats have also won control of the Senate and narrowly preserved their majority in the House of Representatives. My colleague Abby Goodnough, who covers health care for The Times, told me that controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress will unlock fresh options as Mr. Biden battles the pandemic.
“He has some really ambitious ideas, and he now has, presumably, a willing Congress to go along and support him in carrying out these ideas,” Abby said. “Now we’re going to see if his vision turns out to be better than Trump’s and the Republicans’ vision and methods for approaching the pandemic.”
Mr. Biden has said he wants 100 million vaccines administered in his first 100 days in office — a plan that includes the creation of federally run mass vaccination sites across the country. He has also pledged to push a new stimulus package through Congress to provide relief for struggling Americans, businesses, local governments and schools that “will be in the trillions of dollars.”
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Are the Republicans really going to be dumb enough to oppose this stuff?
With the Democrats in control, Abby said, Mr. Biden also has a chance to make moves on health care. Big structural changes like “Medicare for all” or a public option face a tough road, but Democrats could make improvements to the Affordable Care Act that could bring immediate benefits in the coronavirus effort.
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Are they really going to keep opposing Obamacare with 22+ million infected with COVID and 380,000+ dead from it?
Of course they will. They’re the Party Of Financial Responsibility, doncha know? It’s baked into their genes.
But everyone is so concerned about “optics.” How is that gonna look? How can they make Biden and the Dems the bad guys if they oppose what amounts to crisis relief and management?
I don’t think it’s going to be a clear connect-the-dots argument that Obamacare saved lives during COVID, or that MFA would have saved even more lives than Obamacare. I’m not saying it isn’t true, just that it’s not obviously true.
And also, IMHO, not as important as the vaccine story. Getting 100 million Americans vaccinated by May would almost make a “normal” summer possible, which will do a lot more to weaken GOP resistance than any Obamacare battles.