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Openings are always a moment of hope and warmth, followed by the cold and messy reality of government.
And this is especially true with the assumption of office of Joe Biden. It’s like going from the soft tones of Lady Gaga to the gruff monotonous of Mitch McConnell.
Stories about President Biden’s first full day in office – and the media’s first full day without Donald Trump – have a tonic tone, as if reporters suddenly remember that the country is going through extremely difficult times.
“Biden Faces Conflict of Crises,” the New York Times banner headline launched.
And even if Biden dons an FDR cloak, no president would have the superpowers necessary to defeat the pandemic, revive the economy, achieve racial justice and heal the deep divisions that reached their depressing climax during the siege on Capitol Hill. It is a long task to accomplish.
Biden acknowledged all of these issues and more in his unity speech, but the predominant emotion that swept across the media landscape on Wednesday, fairly or unfairly, was relief that Trump was gone. Yesterday, there was the sobering recovery of this summit.
Each candidate faces the transition from poetry to prose, as Mario Cuomo put it, using the bulky tools of government bureaucracy to move mountains. Biden certainly hasn’t assimilated the task ahead. He has talked about the coronavirus more than any other issue, and on the day he took power the country set another one-day record as the pandemic claimed the lives of 4,367 Americans.
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As the President said yesterday in a speech lowering expectations for Covid, “We didn’t get into this mess overnight, and it’s going to take us months to turn it around.”
But just as Democrats ran against Herbert Hoover for half a century, Biden and his allies will no doubt say, at least for a year or two, that Trump left him a crippled country.
Dan Balz writes in the Washington Post: “If it was a day for him to celebrate this achievement, it was also a day to reckon with what Donald Trump’s four years of presidency has done for the country and the monumental task of repair and restoration. it is now the responsibility of the new president.
John Dickerson of CBS, writing in Atlantic, said: “Joe Biden has a real chance to be a boring president. It will take constant work …
“A president who tries to fit this mold might not keep the country riveted, but it will be effective. A presidency based on ratings or news alert trill, on the other hand, is also distinct. vital requirements of the position that “The apprentice emerged from the habits of effective corporate governance. “
National Review’s Rich Lowry, writing in Politico, says Biden has prepared for failure on the unity front. He says the media is more polarized and that “parties have become more and more purely ideological, cultural and geographic opposites to each other. These differences cannot be overcome simply by good faith and goodwill ”.
Lowry wrote: “Basically, Biden will not pursue a consensual bipartisan agenda, but a progressive one. He is his right. He is a Democrat who has always been at the center of gravity of his party, who has consistently move to the left. over the decades. “
It is true; elections have consequences. Biden wasn’t saying he didn’t expect disagreements, he was arguing that they could be resolved in a more civil manner. It may be a fantasy. Biden’s belief is rooted in the endless negotiations he had as a senator and vice president, but that world has changed.
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It was also fascinating to see Jen Psaki, the new White House press secretary, praising her for leading a normal and somewhat lackluster briefing with reporters. Drawing inevitable comparisons to Sean Spicer’s most important debut, Psaki conquered the room by professing his “deep respect for the role of a free and independent press.” So “the enemy of the people” is now officially retired.
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A former spokesperson for the Obama administration, Psaki is very gentle behind the podium, deflecting questions (like about Trump’s impeachment trial) that she didn’t want to answer. She said on one of the morning shows that Biden stressed the importance of “tone,” so while I’m sure there will be combative briefings, they probably won’t get mean. Maybe most of them won’t be televised.
For me, the best part of the prime-time Biden special – other than the song Springsteen – was the video of three former presidents discussing unity and a peaceful transition. George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton each phrased it differently, but they were on the same page. Maybe the boring business of a lazy government will be a relief after all.
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