Biden Oozes
/By Don Varyu
March 11, 2021
Some Presidents ooze. FDR oozed defiance (to attacks from the wealthy and Wall Street, he replied, “I welcome their hatred!”) Kennedy oozed charisma. Reagan oozed a sunny veneer over a core of early dementia. Trump simultaneously oozed both bombast and insecurity.
Joe Biden oozes, too. He oozes competence.
He has never been, and will never be, a gifted speaker. He sometimes gets mixed up. But the message that underlies every appearance is constant: “I know how to do this.”
That’s because he’s spent decades learning what works and what doesn’t in government. To Reagan’s assertion that “government is the problem”, Biden’s implied response is always the same: “no, the nation has problems, and I can see a way for government to help fix them.” For my money, this was the right note to swing him both a nomination and a presidency. Between the extremes, the electorate's middle ground trusted him. They understood, for example, that no matter how good your dentist is, at the critical moment you don’t want that dentist doing your heart bypass. Competence counts.
So far, Biden’s picked most of the low-hanging fruit, overturning the preposterous executive orders that Trump issued mainly to energize his base. But passage of the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill was not easy. At least two senators in his own party promised to vote against it, and thus seal its defeat. But somehow those threats disappeared. Behind closed doors, Biden’s team pulled the right levers to bring them both into the fold. It was the kind of thing that Lyndon Johnson did better than anyone else. Biden knows those moves.
Of course, the going will get rougher. The extent to which parliamentary moves can again be deployed is unclear. And with exactly zero Republican Congressmen and Senators voting for the bill, the GOP seems chained to obstruction, no matter how much it hurts them. Which means the vital conversations we’re now having about policy may soon descend again into ones on politics, featuring speculation on who in 2022 will be rewarded or penalized for their votes. Dramatic conflict is catnip for the media, and they’re already getting twitchy.
But for the moment, let’s take a minute to celebrate: up with competence!# # #
