Sticking with Biden, despite misgiving
I feel compelled to remind readers of High Plains Blogger of something I said early in the 2020 presidential campaign.
It was that Joe Biden was not my preferred choice for the Democratic Party nomination. I did not have a favorite among the seeming dozens of candidates seeking to run against the 45th POTUS. I just wanted someone younger, more creative, more, um, energetic.
Then all the other candidates eventually dropped out after Biden got that key endorsement in South Carolina from Rep. James Clyburn; he won the SC primary and never looked back.
Then I was all in with the former vice president.
Fast-forward to the present day. I’m still all in with the current president.
I am one of the 45 or so percentage of voters who still approves of the job he is doing. Is he the perfect president? Hell no! There hasn’t been anyone who has achieved perfection, although — just like the Constitution declares about our great nation — they have sought to be “more perfect.”
What troubles me the most about President Biden’s term so far? It would be two things: His refusal to call the immigration crisis at our southern border what it was: a crisis; he also did not oversee a flawless withdrawal of our fighting troops from the Afghan battlefield. You don’t hear him use the “crisis” terminology much these days, but his administration staffers have been calling it what it is, presumably with the approval of the Big Man. As for the Afghan withdrawal, that remains a work in progress but I am going to hold out hope that we can repatriate those who want out and who can get out and away from the Taliban.
President Biden inherited a country reeling from a pandemic. He didn’t get any help transitioning from civilian status to POTUS from his predecessor or his team. However, I also expressed confidence in Biden’s vast government experience, hoping that it would enable him to fumble, bumble and stumble his way into power with a minimum of major mistakes. I believe he has done that.
Which brings me to perhaps his greatest accomplishment, which is that I believe we are beginning to turn the corner on the pandemic. Biden relies on the advice of his medical team. He stays the hell out of their way, which speaks well of his management style, particularly compared to that of his immediate predecessor.
So, there you have it.
I am standing with Joseph R. Biden Jr., even with my stated misgivings about him at the beginning of the most recent campaign.