do we americans like our presidents (and leaders) more for what they say than what they do?
i wonder, because biden.
as i’ve said before (https://snicholsblog.com/2022/09/biden-should-run-but-so-should-others, https://snicholsblog.com/2020/10/why-this-still-angry-sanders-supporter-is-voting-biden-harris-even-in-california) , biden was my last choice in the 2020 presidential primary. well, let’s face it, he was pretty much everyone’s last choice until a tiny cabal of corrupt south carolina politicians and dem party pols took the law into their own hands—why do you think south carolina will be the first primary in 2024 and not one of the last? i was a bernie bro now i’m a biden bro. why, when everyone else seems to dislike him? because i watch what he does, not what he says. here’s what he’s done:
- negotiate down big pharma on all drugs and especially price of insulin
- bring battery production to us
- green new deal elements
- reduce student debt (even if supremes don’t allow it, he’s already distributed huge amounts of money, you can’t walk that back)
- protected marriage equality
- this list of president biden’s accomplishments (on a website that makes it pretty darn clear if it wasn’t already that he’s running for re-election) is genuinely impressive not just sounds impressive.
this man is not a good talker. he appoints amazing people. he’s embedded more climate action geniuses in every part of the federal government than ever before. he sets a direction. he’s apparently great to work for. he sets bold goals. and then he tries with all his might to get them done.
as this spot on dana carvey impression on jimmy kimmel live reminds us, he does not, however, talk a good game. he bumbles. he stumbles. he is not an orator. he does not pick a theme and work with it. he doesn’t follow talking points. he glad hands(“good to see ya, man”) instead. bernie likes him. insiders like him. people in washington trying to get the things i think should be done like him.
regular people don’t like him. at all. i can’t tell you the number of times i have heard very intelligent voting democrats dis biden and wax nostalgic about obama. it’s as if they’re all convinced biden is an epic failure when in my not so humble opinion he’s the second most accomplished democratic president of my lifetime.
oddly, because both of them presided over the vietnam war and nixon was, well, nixon, lyndon b johnson and richard m nixon have the next best records on domestic legislation.
lbj: upon assuming office, lbj signed and moved through congress
- the clean air act
- the civil rights act of 1964
after the 1964 election, johnson passed even more sweeping reforms. the social security amendments of 1965 created two government-run healthcare programs:
- medicare and medicaid (have you heard of them?)
- he also passed the freedom of information act in 1965 which allowed my father to discover that fbi director j. edgar hoover had been wiretapping our home phone.
contrast that with obama who was the best talker in the world. and gorgeous and consistent. man that man could talk. and he said a lot of things and he made a lot of promises. and yes, he did deliver on obamacare, which because it was the first major expansion of medicaid the program for the poor was a huge important buffer against poverty.
well you get my point. lets pay attention to what president biden does and not what or how he says it. and if bernie likes him, well that’s good enough for me.
