Biden: Year One

President Biden held his own in his first news conference of 2022, taking questions for over an hour and a half and steadfastly defending his record on the economy and on the pandemic.  But while he talked a lot about his accomplishments, he didn't actually say much. And what he did say may have necessitated another hour for questions.

He said he was happy to have the 2022 midterms be a referendum on the economy despite the fact that a lot of folks aren't feeling the good news about the positive economic indicators.  He also said that, if voting rights legislation isn't passed - it won't be, it pretty much died yesterday - some Republican victories in November could be "illegitimate," making him sound like the guy he'd defeated for the Presidency in 2020.  And despite his insistence that he plans to get out of Washington as the midterm election campaigns ramp up, he spent a lot of time talking about Washington - the process, the dealmaking, the politics . . ..  He also wanted to know what the Republicans stood for after they've made it clear what they're against, but the Republican base is so much against Biden and the Democrats that they don't have to vote for anything.  They can just vote against the Democrats.  All we know for certain is that they're for Trump, and that's good enough for them.

Many people, on this first anniversary of Biden's Presidency, can't understand why a man of so much Washington experience is having trouble governing this country.  Maybe because of this: Biden's experience has mostly been in the legislative, not the executive branch.  He knows how to persuade people and make backroom deals to get legislation passed, and he knows how to find consensus and forge alliances, but he doesn't know how to lead the effort.  He's more of a part of the effort.  Maybe that would explain why only three sitting U.S. Senators - Warren G. Harding, John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama - have been elected President. More recently, Americans had preferred governors for the Presidency - people who lead, execute, and get things done.  But after George W. Bush, who had served six years as governor of Texas, Americans largely soured on electing governors to the White House.  Ask Martin O'Malley, who offered his executive experience as a former governor of  Maryland as an argument for his presidential bid . . . and went from offering new leadership in 2016 to offering no leadership in 2020.  Biden never led anything before becoming President.  Even as part of the executive branch, when he was Obama's Vice President, he was primarily the liaison between the White House and Congress and mostly served as second in command but making few if any decisions on his own.

So what I do really think of Biden as President?  I think he's dong okay.  Not great, just okay. And if you wonder why I would accept such mediocrity, consider what we had just before him.  

No Respect At All

President Obama and the congressional Republican leadership were supposed to talk over dinner at the White House tonight, but incoming Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority - Minority - Leader Mitch McConnell asked that the meeting be postponed, citing scheduling conflicts in configuring the Republican congressional caucuses. This is like an aspiring actor turning down a starmaking part in a big-budget movie because he's already committed to a soap commercial. The Bush tax cuts are about to expire with no definite idea of whether or even how to extend them, people are still having trouble finding employment in this jobless recovery, and the congressional Republican leaders would rather dole out their legislative assignments that have dinner with the President.

It has become blatantly obvious the the Republicans disrespect this President and that they want to humiliate him in every conceivable way. They can't bear the thought of giving someone young -and let's face it, blacker - than they are their time. Meanwhile, congressional Democrats are ready to cede on Republicans to economic issues without much of a fight.

Although Boehner and McConnell have rescheduled their meeting with the President for November 30 - twelve days later - it seems unlikely that the three men can come up with any workable working relationship, and that the Republicans would rather wait until the new Congress convenes to tell Obama how it's going to be. They've done everything but call him "boy" so far to demean him. Even Bob Dole never took Bill Clinton to task like this after the 1994 midterm elections. McConnell has made it clear that he wants Obama destroyed and defeated - in that order - and the Democrats are willing to go along to get along.

The Republicans already have some leverage. Even before the new Congress has taken office, the Republicans can use the latest poll numbers to jerk Obama around in this congressional lame duck session. Only a quarter of Americans think Obama can be re-elected in 2012, and his approval ratings remain mired at about 45 percent. No matter how much Obama tries to get his message across, no one seems to want to pay attention to him.

Is anybody listening? Oh, there's no respect at all.

(I, for one, would have loved to have dinner with the President and discussed issues with him, because I have plenty to say about that. Ironically, I ate out with my mother tonight for my birthday after we postponed it . . . for twelve days.)