Houston Chronicle endorses Biden
President Joe Biden is more than his accomplishments in office, a knowledgable acquaintance advised. Rather than spit out a bullet list of them in its Monday endorsement, The Houston Chronicle connected them to wisdom, experience, and strength of character.
Newspaper endorsements mean less today than they once did, if they ever meant that much. But if any major newspapers issued them earlier than The Houston Chronicle Editorial Board’s endorsement of President Joe Biden (ahead of the March 5 primary), I can’t recall.
A president who “believes in the power of government to make life better for the American people, is a key reason we heartily endorse the reelection of President Joe Biden.” Another is “to fend off the chaos, corruption and danger to the nation” represented by a second Donald Trump term.
The paper provides a list of what Biden has accomplished in his first term with a narrow legislative margins in Congress.
For starters: “The economy has recovered from the perils of the pandemic and is now healthier than that of any other advancednation. With unemployment approaching a 50-year low, companies large and small need workers.”
But there’s more:
Inflation is trending downward, somehow, despite all dire prophecies of economists, without the bitter medicine of arecession or a period of high unemployment. Food prices are still high, and hard-working Americans are still wincing atgrocery store receipts, but gas prices have fallen, as the U.S. produces more oil than any country in history, including Saudi Arabia. In an ongoing effort to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, the administration is investing $7 billion in anambitious solar-power project and is promoting other alternative energy projects, as well.
The stock market is percolating along and hitting record highs.
“Infrastructure week” became a punch line during the inept Trump administration, but the Biden administration in its first year managed to pass a bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that’s expected to add an estimated 1.5 million jobs per year for the next 10 years. This administration’s “infrastructure week” is investing in clean water and high-speed internet. It’s repairing roads and bridges, upgrading air- and seaports, modernizing our power infrastructure, investing in public transit and pahssenger rail and cleaning up Superfund and brownfield sites.
The summary reminds readers that Democrats build, Republicans break. There’s been a lot of breaking lately.
There is more, of course, including a $35 monthly cap on insulin for Medicare recipients, semiconductor manufacturing, and a bipartisan gun safety bill that’s more than Republican “thoughts and prayers.” Biden reinforced NATO after Trump’s attempts at sabotage, and Biden has spearheaded European efforts to stop Russian aggression in Ukraine by Trump’s BFF Vladimir Putin.
Under the leadership of a president with decades of experience in the Middle East, the administration is seeking a path to peace and stability in the post-October 7 conflagration involving Gaza, Iran and Israel and the desperate Palestinian people. The administration also is trying to tamp down the potential danger of a region-wide war. It’s hard to imagine Biden’s predecessor having either the patience or the prowess to play a signifi cant role in resolving a devilishly complex crisis.
(Biden’s patience to date with Israel’s Bebe Netanyahu has failed to stem the slaughter of civilians in Gaza, yes. Trump would just egg him on.)
The Board acknowledges other Biden’s failures and the limits of his authority facing a hostile, MAGA-led House. Yet Biden brings underappreciated intangibles.
“One of the greatest gifts of a democratic civil society is the freedom not to think about government, to wake up and not worry about the mood of a leader,” recovering GOP operative Stuart Stevens writes in The New Republic. “Joe Biden has made governing boring and predictable, both fundamental rights of the people in a healthy democracy.”
We are well aware of Biden’s age, 81, (and Trump’s, 77), as well as memory lapses that have prompted near-panicamong many of the president’s fellow Democrats. Those of us who remember the energetic, garrulous, occasionallyeven eloquent Joe Biden of years past can see the difference a few years have made, even if he was always prone to gaffes. Accounts other than the report of Special Counsel Robert Hur suggest, however, that Biden remains focused, engaged and in command on the vital issues that occupy a president. Experience counts.
We are reassured in large part because Biden has restored the tradition of a capable team running the White House, atradition trampled by Trump’s deeply fl awed scheme to run a one-man show. Like Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson andFranklin Roosevelt, Biden’s deft management of his team has made him, arguably, the most productive president since LBJ in the early months of his administration.
He has, as they say, forgotten more than his presumed Republican rival will ever know. That’s not saying much, and at the same time, it says it all.
“Forgotten more than you’ll ever know” is a phrase my EMT instructor used to describe doctors attempting poorly to do CPR or other tasks that EMT’s do routinely. He cautioned patience. Out of practice does not mean out of their minds or incompetent. Trump never bothered to learn anything that wouldn’t profit him personally, and famously blanches at the sight of blood. He is incompetent.
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone
Citizenship is not guaranteed to be fun and exciting. Frankly, our republic works better when it goes unnoticed.
MAGA voted for fun and exciting. Don’t be like MAGA.
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