There is really a superabundance of mostly unwanted advice for Joe Biden. This time it’s provided by Bret Stephens in his New York Times column. His bullet points are:
- The president needs a new team, starting with a new chief of staff.
- The president needs to focus on American needs, not liberal wishes.
- The president should remember that he won as a moderate and a unifier.
- The president also won office as a trusted steward of American power.
- And yes, the president should announce he isn’t running for re-election.
I honestly don’t think that any of those would help much. For example, firing his chief-of-staff is only a good idea if that’s where the problem is. Democratic presidents tend not to follow a staff management style. Just to amplify while I agree that Joe Biden is too old to be president I don’t believe he’s as disabled and helpless as the prevailing Republican narrative would have it. The problems are largely his own limitations not the fault of his staff. I think it should also be noted that the Congressional Democratic leadership is dominated by contemporaries of President Biden’s. It’s really time for the Silent Generation to step aside.
As I’ve mentioned before, his Congressional majority is so narrow he can’t alienate the progressive wing of the party. And as I’ve emphasized since the primaries, Joe Biden is not a moderate but a centrist and only a centrist in the sense of the center of the Democratic Party. That’s part of the problem not the solution.
Pundits gonna pundit.
“…he can’t alienate the progressive wing of the party.”
And:
“And as I’ve emphasized since the primaries, Joe Biden is not a moderate but a centrist and only a centrist in the sense of the center of the Democratic Party.”
We have very few leaders or statesmen. The Washington game of I’ll scratch your back etc, under the hoary notion of compromise, prevails and has gotten us here. The Sanders deal made during the primaries was expedient but not well thought out. The legacy media carries a lot of water for Biden, but they carry more for the progressives. Biden can’t dismiss the crazy left because of this, and because he is not skilled enough, vigorous enough or principled enough.
“…I don’t believe he’s as disabled and helpless as the prevailing Republican narrative would have it.”
I’m not sure that’s the prevailing narrative except from the most strident critics. However, he is clearly impaired. All one has to do is watch clips of him recorded as recently as 5 years ago and compare to today. He may not have dementia, but he exhibits all sorts of mannerisms and characteristic of the elderly. Combine the deterioration with his historical performance and, another fine mess.
The 5 bullet points supplied by Bret Stephens have merit, if they were directed at and received by a high functioning president and a democrat party not drowning in it’s own slipping-into-Marxism ideology. Sadly the reality of today, though, is that the mental and/moral capacities of those running U.S. policy-making is on “empty.â€
Although, many don’t want to cop to Biden’s obvious mental decline, he definitely is a shell of a man compared to what he used to be, and is going down hill with each video-taped appearance. This country doesn’t deserve to have someone with such a fragile cognizance as president, not only because of the domestic damage he has already caused, but also for the diminished respect he has garnered on the world stage. Having a weak, senile leader only makes it that much easier for stronger foreign enemies to have their way in becoming a bigger presence in global politics – China, Iran and Russia come to mind.
As for Biden’s “teamâ€. – I think he has one of the most incompetent administrations in recent history. Ron Klain, his COS, is nothing more than a political operative who has made mistake after mistake.
Biden’s focus dismisses American’s needs and wishes, and only focuses on pushing the whims and wishes of a social progressive agenda.
And, Biden’s energy has been invested in smirking or laughing at the opposition’s resistance and criticism, rather than trying to fill cracks of differences/division with moderated policies.
Lastly, Biden and his “team†don’t get out in front of any crisis on the horizon. Just look had the supply chain mess. Or, what about the introduction of 5G and how they are impacting airport landings. 40 other countries have made the appropriate adjustments, while the US has been caught flat-footed, with countries like Japan cancelling fights for safety reasons. And, then we have the Winter Olympics in China, sending our athletes over to a country engaged in locking down, possibly to contain a new variant. Didn’t we make the same mistake earlier when COVID-19 was brewing over there?
A rejoinder to the 5 ideas.
1. This is the team that won the election, and most served in the 2nd Obama term (Rice, Klain, Deese).
2. What if American needs are liberal wishes?
3. Biden’s coalition was such that progressives and moderates were both “majority makers”. He was elected both to revolutionize this country and unify it.
4. Biden hasn’t started a new war (yet)
5. Biden was speculated as a lame duck on Jan 20, 2021, his situation will be made better by making it official with 3 years left?
I have simpler advice. Biden should order the DOJ to sue Twitter to restore Donald Trump’s twitter account. My guess is that’s good for 5 points in approval rating. Never hurts to viscerally remind voters of the alternative.
I agree with you to the extent that Donald Trump is probably the Democratic Party’s biggest selling point.
I doubt that Trump would rejoin Twitter, even if his account was restored. He is creating his own social platform, and then there is GETTR which has been adding new members pretty regularly. There is also rumble replacing Utube, and Substack, and a myriad of others taking a shot at becoming less biased information sources.
What seems to be stirring, under the noses of media moguls, who thus far have had a solid grip on what can be labeled disinformation, is a restructuring movement substituting new platforms, institutions for old and authoritarian ones. It remains to be seen how successful the “new roots,†cultivating broader, better news and services will become over time. However, the energy and commitment behind people, fed up with being forced-fed ideas, rules, how to live or not live their lives, is expanding.
In the lingo of technology industry — I assess Trump is talented in creating content, but he’s shown no evidence he is skilled in nurturing content platforms. Its the difference between being a showrunner vs being the chief of ABC; or the guy who has the most followers on twitter vs Jack Dorsey.
Content creators always prefer that their content be on as many distribution channels / platforms as possible.
It is likely Trump’s social networking venture will fail — despite the social media industry being ripe for disruption.
I think the risk is a little different. Creating a new content platform is relatively easy in the scheme of things (buying one is even easier). Create a content platform with 300 million or 3 billion users is a lot harder.
Said another way he can succeed in creating the platform and still fail.