(4 minute read)
Fair question.
What do I think about President Biden and the job that he has done? Why did I vote for him? Well, I voted for him because he wasn’t Trump. I would have voted for a turnip before I voted for Trump. Obviously, I didn’t set a high bar for any opposition to him. What I accepted about Biden is that he was the person that could beat Trump. And he did. He beat him good. Real good. It’s icing on the cake that Trump thought so little of him.
But what about Biden? What kind of job is doing as President? To talk about one President, it’s necessary to make comparisons to others. Naturally I’ll do some of that because it illustrates the differences of style.
Biden is a journeyman. He knows how to get the job done. Unlike Trump, Biden knows how government functions. He puts in the actual day to day grind. The actual job of being President. He doesn’t spend the majority of his day watching TV and rage tweeting. While, in general, I find that he’s too cautious,
Biden works.
Making a difference
I did not expect Biden to be an orator. He isn’t like Presidents Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton and Obama. (As much as I dislike Clinton, the man could give a speech and was probably the best of the group). Obama’s pacing drove me nuts but it worked for him. When he talks I find myself wanting to complete his sentences. Trump is charismatic but not an orator. He’s too disjointed and random. Trump can work a crowd for sure, but it has to be his crowd. His is not a thinking person’s crowd.
I waited to watch Biden’s latest speech. I enjoy watching the closed captioning as a speech is being delivered. I usually appreciate the words of a speech more than the delivery. His speech was magnificent. It was a tour de force of writing. On the downside, Biden tends to deliver every word with same intensity. He also has a habit that I can relate to, he talks too fast. All in all,
He did a first-rate job.
Positioning
Here’s the deal. Biden owned the speech. His speech is what he believes. Did he give it at the right time? Will it make a difference? It’s too early to tell but the general population seems to be coming to grips finally with the intentions of the MAGA Trump gang. MAGA heads seeking various offices are busy scrubbing their campaign sites of some of their most extreme positions. (Not a good time to be hiding your beliefs with an internet that never forgets.)
Where Trump has trouble providing the same story twice in a row in a speech Biden has been consistent. He doesn’t whine about how unfairly he has been treated or what a perpetual victim of media he has been. That and tawdry name calling were Trump’s consistent themes. Still are.
President Biden doesn’t bury his message or his achievements with chaos. President Trump did have some positive accomplishments, but they were usually buried by his constant antics, theatrics and attention seeking for validation. Whereas Biden’s motivation is to fight for the soul of the nation to remain a beacon of light and democracy, Trump’s goal, along with his Party, is revenge. (I think that I’ll do a post on this theme.)
They want to get even.
Without obligation
I have no compulsion to make excuses for President Biden’s screw-ups whereas MAGA heads and the Trump party excuse and defend every bad act of Trump. Credit should be given where credit is due. As President Trump should be given credit for starting the process to extricate our nation from Afghanistan. But he didn’t finish the job. As President he could have, but he didn’t. He left that mess for the next guy. Biden screwed up the final withdrawal. Did he get bad advice from our military and intelligence services? Without a doubt. But he’s the Commander in Chief. The buck stops with him.
Any president is going to have screw-ups. Running a country is messy and complicated. Lives will be lost. Hopefully, more lives will be saved. The main goal is or at least should be to make things better, to make the world a better place, to make the quality of life better for as many people as possible.
Do what good you can while you can.