Inflation, Covid virus variants, Russian threats to Ukraine, Chinese transparency and tariffs, supply chain improvements, infrastructure repairs, arcane rules of the United States Senate, criminal insinuations about a son, political ideology, Central American policy, America’s divisions: President Joe Biden stood in front of the press for almost two hours, and answered questions. He showed an in-depth knowledge of all the issues facing our Nation. And President Biden demonstrated an openness to the press, and the Nation, about the crises of our time.
Big F**king Deal
Biden has been accused of three failings. First, the famous Biden “faux-pas” (“Barack this is a Big F**king Deal!”). The only possible “faux-pas” in this two hour grilling on national television, was Biden musing about what actions Russia might take against Ukraine. Some suggest that he was signaling to Russia that the United States and NATO would “tolerate” a small incursion, but not a full scale invasion.
Maybe he was, or maybe he was simply laying out for Vladimir Putin the levels of retribution that the US and NATO were considering. Or maybe President Biden was giving the American people some insight into his own thoughts. But what the President made clear was that Putin had not signaled his own intentions, and that consequences would depend on provocation. It’s just as possible that he was communicating to Moscow, rather than just “slipping up”.
Others, notably Peter Baker of the New York Times, hammered Biden for not “staying on message”. The Biden message, according to Baker, was supposed to be a White House “re-set”, after the failure to pass Build-Back-Better and the Voting Rights bills in the Senate. Biden started down that path, placing the blame over and over again for failure firmly on the Senate Republicans who voted against as a block. Biden spent much less time talking about Democrats Manchin and Sinema, Democrats who favored the bills, but refused to break the filibuster rule.
Baker felt that Biden went on to long, leaving the “re-set” behind. While The Times is welcome to their opinion, Biden did demonstrate a wide ranging knowledge of all of the issues, and laid out a case for other Democratic accomplishments, versus Republican intransigence.
Irish Up
The second failing Biden is accused of is having a hot temper. Biden is known for harkening back to his heritage, including “getting his Irish up” when angered. And the President had several good reasons to become angered, as certain media representatives (not really reporters, more provocateurs) made statement trying to bait him. Newsmax asked whether the President was in “cognitive decline”, while Fox asked why he had trended so far to “the left”.
Instead of losing his cool, Biden gave a one word answer (“No”) to Newsmax and moved on. As far as the Fox question, Biden answered coolly, saying that while he was friends with Bernie Sanders, he wasn’t Bernie Sanders and was and remains a moderate, mainstream Democrat. He didn’t get red in the face, nor did he fall in the trap of the predecessor and start attacking the questioners. Fox News, of course, claims that the conference was a “total disaster”, and even suggested Biden “lost his cool” with a reporter when he told him to “go back and read” a speech that Biden made about the voting rights bills. But as a direct observer myself, I didn’t see that. I saw the President refusing to accept the “factual” premise of a question.
And when a reporter suggested that Biden didn’t demand tough answers from China because of an alleged relationship between Biden’s son Hunter and China, the President didn’t take the bait. Instead, he ignored the “Hunter” part of the question, and corrected the reporters “facts” about his conversation with President Xi.
Cognitive Decline
Biden spent two hours in the hot light of the national media. Biden answered questions on every topic in front of him. He mused on the state of America, and sympathized with a people “fed up” with the coronavirus. By the end of the conference, the biggest complaint may be that he gave too much “fodder” for a hostile media to swallow. Reading this morning’s press, it’s clear the “right” will give him no credit, and the “left” won’t let go of Manchin and Sinema.
Biden made his point. He is a man of the middle, perhaps in a time where the middle doesn’t exist. He is a leader who believes that America will join him in change, if he can simply explain what he’s trying to do. There’s no “cognitive decline” in that.
It’s the picture of a President trying to bring America back to a “safer” center. We’ll see if that works.
