From the New Republic:
Just Say It, Democrats: Biden Has Been a Great President
His achievements have been nothing short of historic.
Because it is.
Yes, the desire to see the 2024 election as a choice between a normal, stable president versus an erratic thug under indictment in multiple states is seductive. But don’t base a campaign on that contrast. Don’t go into 2024 with the game plan to win because Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy. That’s true, he is, but that’s only making the case that Donald Trump shouldn’t be president. It’s not the reason Joe Biden should be reelected.
Joe Biden should remain president because of his historic level of achievement here at home while standing on the side of freedom versus tyranny in the largest land war in Europe since World War II, a role no American president has played since the Roosevelt-Truman era. Be bold. Walk into this campaign with swagger and confidence and pride.
It’s become a 2024 trope that Donald Trump is the only Republican whom President Biden could beat, and that Biden is the only Democrat whom Trump could defeat. Like a lot of things in politics, it’s true if you accept it. But that acceptance is voluntary. Reject that framing for the industrial political complex bullshit that it is, brought to you by the same class of experts who knew without question that Bill Clinton was dead in June 1992, when he was running third to Ross Perot and George Bush, with 24 percent of the vote.
Stop the nonsense that only a weak opponent gives Joe Biden a chance to win. Read the rest here.
Alicia Menendez, Cornell Blecher and David Jolly had a lively discussion on this article during the last 10 minutes of Deadline White House (MSNBC) on Friday. If you can find it and watch it, it was excellent. I’ve been trying to track it down to no avail. I think eventually it may end up here, but it’s not there yet.
Is Biden perfect? No. Is he a damn good President? Absolutely. Is he better than any of the GOP alternatives? You bet – because even the least repugnant of them still wants to take away your rights: voting, healthcare, body autonomy, separation of church and state, who you can love, to name a few.
This is an open thread
This Seems Like a Good Time
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I’ve said this many times, Biden is easily the best president of my lifetime.
OzarkHillbilly
But but but Joe is oooooollldddd.
Hungry Joe
BEST PRESIDENTS (in order):
1) Abraham Lincoln
2) Franklin Roosevelt
3) Joe Biden
Who could bump Joe back to 4 or 5? I’m weak on the early presidents, so … Washington? Or … ?
(Remember, I said “Best,” not “Perfect.”)
UncleEbeneezer
Yes, yes, YES!!! Now if only we can get the Media to start signal-boosting this…wait, why are you all laughing?
piratedan
I’m glad that Biden is President and to be fair, he finds a way to stay outside of the ditches on the vast majority of issues and is patient enough and old enough to have faith in America and her institutions and understand those levers.
Here’s to hoping he gets elected again and can guide us away from Fascism.
cmorenc
@Hungry Joe: i would place Teddy Roosevelt just ahead of Biden – TR got anti-trust laws to break up monopoly business practices of the Gilded Age tycoons, as well as kick-starting conservation by establishing the Forest Service and IIRC the first national parks Yellowstone, Yosimite)
TR was a republican when they were the progressive-minded party and the Democrats were the racist. Xenophobe party. TR would disown the current-day GOP.
Jackie
I wish American culture was more like the Asian culture of honoring and respecting their elders for their knowledge and expertise.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jackie: Have you taken a look at some of our elders of late? I mean, I’m a fn’ mess! And i’m one of the good ones, (ducks behind my desk)
Baud
I know the sample sizes are different, but it bugs men that never Trumpers are more on message than so many liberal Dems.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Hungry Joe: I would put Washington up there for setting the precedent of a peaceful transfer of power, which stood until three years ago.
Honestly Ulysses S Grant was a really good President – those lost causers rewrote his Presidency out of spite. I’m sure one could make a case for TJ and Teddy Roosevelt. I’m in the middle of Destiny of the Republic which is about the assassination of James Garfield. He was a kind and brilliant guy with the right priorities. Had he not been murdered he may have been one of the greatest.
I still think Obama ranks too for being the first black President and I feel like Joe learned a lot about Republican dysfunction and intransigence during Obama’s administration that’s helped him be more successful. But Joe has been fantastic full stop.
zhena gogolia
I love Joe.
eclare
What a great message! Now it’s up to us.
Geminid
@cmorenc: Ulysses Grant signed the law making Yellowstone the nation’s first National Park, in 1872. I think Phil Sheriden told him that some promoters wanted to build a railroad to Yellowstone and that Grant needed to do something before it was too late.
John Revolta
Good article. Horrible graphic though.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
The rarity makes the good ones even more precious.
azlib
I believe Biden will be rated in the top 10 best Presidents. After all he got us through one of the worst crisis in American history. He was what was need with his deep understanding of the legislative process as well as his calm demeanor. He also hired an excellent staff. Frankly, I have been very surprised by his performance.
Baud
@John Revolta:
Good point. I have to assume that was The New Republic’s doing.
HumboldtBlue
That’s a scary-ass graphic, Joe looks demented.
Here’s a little history for Feb. 10.
eclare
@HumboldtBlue:
Awesome.
TriassicSands
There is an article in the NY Times today about how and why Biden and Trump are perceived differently in terms of age and cognitive decline. For the most part it is a reasonable discussion, but unsurprisingly, one of the most important reasons for the difference is never mentioned — the way the media,very definitely including the Times, report on the two. Discussions of Trump’s incoherence are more likely to be mentioned, if at all, in articles about Biden’s “decline.” Only very recently, when the failing candidate, opportunist Nikki Haley began to point out Trump’s incoherence, have Trump’s very obvious problems warranted MSM notice. Trump’s rallies are a fine example of an incoherent stream of unconsciousness where random thoughts are strung together in a bizarre web of idiocy.
I’ve followed Biden for decades. He has never been articulate and has always made verbal gaffes. It isn’t surprising to me at all that he said “Mexico” when he should have said Egypt recently. That is the kind of mistake that has not only been common for Biden over the years, it’s the kind of error that many people, of all ages, make. Biden’s failing there was not in catching his own mistake and correcting it, but that, too, is normal for Biden. I don’t know what role his stutter has played and plays in his everyday speech, but if those kinds of mistakes are a reason why Biden shouldn’t be re-elected in November, then he never should have been elected in 2020. And that would have meant that we missed out on a remarkably positive and successful presidency, which stands in stark contrast to the four chaotic years of Trump as “Criminal-in-Chief.”
Biden is old and he looks and acts old. His stiff, often unsteady appearance is a reflection of his chronological age, but not a measure of his ability to be an effective president. His verbal gaffes are nothing new and can reasonably be ignored. After all these years, that won’t change.
I went back and looked at Trump’s speech when he was younger. There was none of the rambling incoherence and idiocy we see and hear now. Whereas Biden still, unsurprisingly, has the same difficulties he’s always had, Trump has declined very significantly. For the most part, we’re unlikely to see any discussion of this in the MSM. They look for trouble where it doesn’t exist and ignore it where it does, all in the name of the “horse race.”
Baud
@TriassicSands:
I agree with all of this. Biden is old, but everything else is gaslighting.
oldster
Stuart Stevens is part of the Lincoln Project, whom I generally do not trust.
However, the message here is good.
That does not mean that I’m going to send the Lincoln Project any money — too many of the people involved are scam artists. But when they say the right things, I’ll agree with them.
Alison Rose
@Hungry Joe: I’d put Biden above FDR since Biden’s policies haven’t excluded Black people and, you know, he hasn’t put any Americans in internment camps.
Baud
@oldster:
Agree. Not a dime from me.
What I don’t understand is why liberals are outsourcing strong messaging to these people. If there’s a home grown messaging group outside of the official party apparatus that’s doing consistently good work, I’m not aware of it.
Alison Rose
@John Revolta: Yeah, it’s…a little scary. Especially since usually pics of Biden smiling are really nice because even at 81, he’s still got a charming as heck grin.
Hungry Joe
@TriassicSands: Look at Trump interviews from the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was — and is, and probably always has been — a smug, preening jerk. But his speech was flat-out normal: The sentences were complete and grammatical and to the point; he could carry on an ordinary, back-and-forth conversation. The content was, as always, self-centered mush, but he came across as an ordinary person, not particularly bright but not downright stupid, either.
It’s jarring to hear those interviews now: That’s the same guy?
oldster
@Alison Rose:
I thought Biden was going to put all red-blooded christianist patriots into internment camps and make them gay-marry their gender reassignment surgeons.
Was I misinformed? Am I going to have to reconsider my vote?
apocalipstick
@Hungry Joe: In terms of impact, LBJ has to be top-3. Medicare/Medicaid, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act… those alone vault him way up. Everybody dismisses him because of Vietnam, but it could be argued that, for pure effect on American life, he ranks above FDR.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Alison Rose: There are so many good pictures of the President. Why did they go with this scary one?
satby
@oldster: @Baud: I don’t think they’re the only ones, just that many of them have worked with the media for decades and are known quantities to show bookers.
delphinium
@TriassicSands: This has been mentioned a few times before, but part of the perception of Biden being ‘old’ also probably has to do with him being very thin. This can translate into frail/infirm in older people, though Biden is obviously in great shape. I have a cousin who has the same tall/thin frame and he easily looks about 6-8 years older just because of that.
Also wish the media (and Hur) would stop with the ‘cognitive decline’ stuff. None of them are medical professionals and as such can’t determine that. Saying the someone misspoke, didn’t remember correctly, or flubbed a line should be stated instead.
Tony Jay
I’m way, way, waaaaay to the left of Smilin’ Joe, but I’d be perfectly happy with him as my Party leader and I’d happily vote for him. Sure, I’d argue against the things I think he’s doing wrong, do what I could to push him into policies more in line with my preferences, and generally kick up a lot of ‘good trouble’, as is expected in a functioning democracy.
You know why? Because I trust Joe Biden not to be a cynical, thin-skinned, backstabbing shitbird with an ‘ideology’ that revolves around keeping the Important People warm and cosy while stamping hard on the shins of anyone threatening the status quo with hippy bullshit like ‘equality’ and ‘fairness’.
Dog knows we could do with that over here, but we drew the short straw and got stuck with… well, no Joe Biden.
Anyway. Yeah. Value what you’ve got, because it’s a King Kong’s dong of a ton better than what most everyone else has been stuck with.
TriassicSands
@Hungry Joe:
You did that. And I did that. But has anyone in the MSM done that? I agree with your assessment of Trump and his speech in the 80s and 90s. Of course, he was, as you say, “a smug, preening jerk.” (Note: That may be the most favorable description possible.)
Biden’s “flaws” are his flaws and like Trump they didn’t go away with the passage of time. In Biden’s case, they seem to be much the same, but Trump’s have gotten even worse in terms of his poisonous self-regard. Now, he has millions of very stupid and depraved people pumping up his ego every day, and compliant media that play into his hands.
Hungry Joe
@apocalipstick: That’s a legit argument, but I can’t quite buy it. Medicare, voting rights, and civil rights put LBJ damn near the top … until Vietnam knocks him back. WAY back.
Where to place him? Adding the pluses and minuses, I’d probably put him somewhere a little above the middle. Because Vietnam is a BIG minus.
Baud
@satby:
I’m mostly here, and I don’t see another group getting the same attention for the same output.
Anoniminous
Between Medicare/Medicaid, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and the rest of the Great Society programs and Viet Nam LBJ has to be the #1 most transitional president with Lincoln and Roosevelt coming in as #2 and #3. But that’s from a White man’s perspective. Blacks may switch Lincoln and LBJ with solid justification.
Edited to add stuff
Hungry Joe
@Tony Jay: Exactly. But exactly.
I always read your comments closely, waiting for the day you say something I disagree with, if only slightly. So far, no luck. But remember: I’m watching. And waiting …
Alison Rose
@oldster: SECOND TERM, BABY.
Baud
Why all y’all hate raven?
TriassicSands
@delphinium:
To the author’s credit (in the Times piece) she points out that Biden’s thinness when contrasted with Trump’s being “heavy set” can be interpreted as age-related frailness. (I would have written fat or obese, but then I would be accused of fat-shaming, when, in reality, I would just be yielding to compelling, journalistically unprofessional urge to
never give Trump any kind of slacktell the plain, unvarnished truth. I’m a bad person, I guess.)Hur’s report is, I think undeniably, a partisan hit job aimed at hurting Biden and assisting Trump. It was every bit as unprofessional as Comey’s uncalled for commentary on Clinton in 2016. I’m sure nothing will come of it, but I think Hur should be sanctioned in some way for his gratuitous commentary.
ETA: It won’t happen, but having chosen Hur, Garland should, I believe, condemn Hur’s unprofessionalism.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
I’ll say it for him: Fuck LBJ.
Bill Arnold
@Hungry Joe:
Nixon secretly sabotaged LBJ’s peace talks[1] (late in his full term, a treasonous October ratfuck by Nixon and team.) and then continued the war against Vietnam (and neighbors) until 1973. (He wasn’t POTUS yet, though, so some might say he gets a pass for that when judging his presidency.)
[1] When a Candidate Conspired With a Foreign Power to Win An Election – It took decades to unravel Nixon’s sabotage of Vietnam peace talks. Now, the full story can be told. (JOHN A. FARRELL August 06, 2017)
Van Buren
I’m 62. Not long ago I said Biden was easily the best President of my life and the person I was speaking with immediately said No way! But then thought for a minute and said, you know, you have a point.
And at this point 4 years ago, he was about my 5th choice….
TriassicSands
@Bill Arnold:
And look at what Reagan did concerning Iran and the hostages.
It may or may not say anything in either Nixon’s or Reagan’s case about their presidencies, but it surely says something about their integrity and character. How did that play out for each. For Nixon it was Watergate and resignation, but for Reagan it was Iran-Contra and no consequences at all. Both should have been impeached and removed from office.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: raven and I are in mourning. Our favorite Georgia football blogger died yesterday. Fuck cancer along with LBJ.
eclare
@Steve in the ATL:
raven mentioned that in the downstairs thread. So sorry for your community.
apocalipstick
@Anoniminous: Agreed.
UncleEbeneezer
@Bill Arnold: The Ken Burns series on Vietnam really spells out how the Vietnam War is really a mess that can be attributed to 3-4 Presidents, not just LBJ, though he definitely managed some of the worst of it.
Tony Jay
@Hungry Joe:
As I’ve grown older and wrinklier I’ve come to the conclusion that “Just don’t be a dick” is the wisest phrase in any and all of the Post-Babel tongues.
It’s easy to remember, endlessly applicable and fits on a mug. As the basis as a manifesto for bloody everything it genuinely can’t be beat.
Ruckus
@TriassicSands:
I believe that Joe Biden’s stutter is the majority reason for how he speaks. There are now better techniques for learning to deal with a stutter but it depends on the degree of stutter and how soon one starts learning how to deal with it. And even then some will never be able to completely overcome a stutter. It is obviously not a detriment to intelligence, only to the physical ability to form speech.
NotMax
@Tony Jay
Along the same vein.
;)
japa21
I generally think it is futile to rate Presidents for several reasons. One is that ealy on Congress did a lot to limit the power of the office and more recently have gone the opposite direction. We are currently in an era where there is an attempt to balance that out.
Secondly, a person can be great on domestic policy and lousy on foreign and any rating will reflect one’s bias of one over the other.
At the age of 76, I have lived through all the Presidents post FDR, although I admit my memory of Truman is limited. Biden has not been perfect and although he deserves great credit for how he has handled the Ukraine situation, he also deserves some criticism. That being said, I do think is either 1 or 2 in my lifetime.
Tony Jay
@NotMax:
It’s the great human divide, isn’t it? The endless push-and-pull between those who just want to be decent members of a functioning society with ethical standards they can be proud of, and a future their kids can grow healthy in, and the dicks who just… don’t.
Ruckus
@Hungry Joe:
Remember Vietnam was over, more than half a century (just, but still over) and a lot of people heard about it or may have even been born during/before it, but the number of people that it directly effected in one way or another and are not all with us any longer is not all that small.
brantl
@TriassicSands: testified “I don’t recall”, and since he had all the brains of a muskmelon left, everybody decided that you can’t punish a vegetable,
satby
@Baud: Here’s some I think are effective. But this blog skews old and we tend to miss a lot of activism on other media:
https://votevets.org/
https://www.meidastouch.com/
Not a group, but the (20ish) nieces watch her:
https://www.youtube.com/@PoliticsGirl
edit: do they have the reach of the Lincoln Project? Dunno.
Ruckus
@Tony Jay:
We shorten it to “Don’t be a dick!”
But it still really, really does apply. And has my entire life.
I’ve know a few dicks in my time, there is no doubt that every human knows a few over their lifetime, I met most of the one’s I’ve known all too well, in the Navy. But I’ve also known them outside of that, have one for a neighbor. He’s a first class dick, and out of the 144 units that make up the complex where I live, he’s also the only one. Oh well, I lived with them in the navy, and couldn’t actually avoid them very well, life on a ship is rather close, like it or not.
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@TriassicSands: I;d love to have a reporter ask Hur to interview TFG for 5 hours about something that happened over 10 years ago and ask him for his honest medical judgement of the orange shitstain after that!
Tony Jay
@Ruckus:
Dicks attract dicks. They employ and promote them, establishing little Empires of Dicks that grow and expand until there are dicks as far as the eye can see. Before you know it every engine of public communication is run by and for dicks and the daily drumbeat of normality as that dicks are good, dicks are right, and everyone should aspire to be a dick if they want to get on in life.
I guess what I’m saying is that dicks need to be kicked in the balls right from the get-go. It’s the only way to preserve the future from an avalanche of dickery.
Euphemistically speaking, of course.
Jess
Biden has a Clint Eastwood vibe to him that helps him come off as a cool old dude, not a pathetic one. He’s been wielding that attitude well in his interactions with the press, I notice.
apocalipstick
@Ruckus: Dude, I remember Vietnam, I remember it well. I still put LBJ in the top 3.
Fake Irishman
@apocalipstick:
right, and LBJ’s legacy goes deeply beyond Medicare, Medicaid and the two major Civil Rights bills (all four of which are transformational)
Public Broadcasting funding, higher education act, the 1965 Immigration Act which finally put the racist 1920s quotas out of their misery. First black Supreme Court justice. Medicare and Medicaid forced hospitals to integrate. A few baseline environmental laws that grew into the major ones of the 1970s.
One other major blemish aside from ‘nam (which Nixon made 10,000 times worse) was his fucking up his nomination to replace Earl Warren. If he didn’t insist on nominating Fortas, the liberal wing of the court probably keeps two justices (Fortas’ relatively minor sins slide under the radar and he stays on the court while Warren gets a solid replacement.) If Nixon goes with Burger and Fortas, that keeps Rehnquist and Powell off the court.
but fwiw I probably go Lincoln/Washington in the first slots with FDR then LBJ. I would think Obama and Biden would be after that. If we can get one more Biden term, the IRA will be as transformational as the ACA has been. (And make no mistake, the ACA for all its flaws is a big …er… deal.) Time will tell in the other bills, but the American Rescue Plan will probably outshine the Obama stimulus (which though underpowered, was still pretty dang good) That leaves infrastructure and CHIPS up against Dodd-Frank.
Brit in Chicago
@Tony Jay: “I’m way, way, waaaaay to the left of Smilin’ Joe”
If Biden had had a real majority in the Senate (looking at you, Manchin and Sinema) he would have passed polices well to the left of where we are now. Maybe not quite waaaay to the left, maybe not quite as left as I’d like, but enough to make a big difference.
And on that topic: one of the things that makes him a great president is that he was able to do as much as he did with the House and Senate that he had (in the House with an assist from Madam Speaker emerita, how big an assist we may never know).
Big Fly
@UncleEbeneezer: Correct, Unk. But you don’t hear anybody saying “Fuck JFK,” do ya? Check out jfklibrary . org * for an “impressive” list of his officials.
* (Sorry. I tried inserting a link, but it turned into an ungodly mess.)
Attempted Chemistry
Last 100 years:
1. FDR
2. LBJ
3. JRB
4. BHO
5. HST
6. JFK
7. WJC
8. JEC
9. DDE
10. GRF
11. GHWB
12. RWR
13. RMN
14. JCC
15. HCH
16. GWB
17. DJT
Paul in KY
@apocalipstick: Other than that, apocalipstick, how was the play?…Sorta riffing on Mrs. Lincoln gallows humour.
LBJ did alot of good & shepherded thru some momentous legislation. However (IMO), he squandered all that on Vietnam, which he escalated (killing so many of our young men & women & God only knows how many Vietnamese) for political reasons only (so the GQP wouldn’t paint him as ‘soft on Communism’). So fuck him…
Paul in KY
@Bill Arnold: Nixon was a troop murdering SOB too!
Paul in KY
@japa21: Harry Truman was a great president!