A day before his final day in office, the world is considering Joe Biden’s performance as president. Historians might say that’s too close up, that six months from now that assessment will begin to be different, more so in five years.
Context, after as well as before, has a lot to do with how personalities and events are scored.
Biden failed to appreciate the importance to many Americans of the need to tighten the southern border, he was not honest with himself as his faculties slipped, and in the end by pardoning son Hunter, let his feelings as a father take precedence over what should have been punishment.
As for inflation, the incoming president will discover that absent too-painful steps, think raising interest rates and austerity measures like spending cuts, a president has little control over that.
In retrospect, Biden’s pledge, and his supporters’ belief four years ago, to bring the country closer together could be considered naive. The country was in crisis and required the government’s heavy hand with continued restrictions to blunt COVID-19 and infusions of cash to stabilize and bring its economy back, not less government and limited spending that the right believes in. There was little or no middle ground, which made it nearly impossible to bridge ideologies, as today.
Nor could it have been predicted that the defeated candidate would reemerge even stronger, using attacks thrown in every direction, exaggeration and lies to deliver a steady stream of outlandish criticisms and promises to create a false sense that all was wrong with the country and that only he could repair it.
Biden is the one who led the effort to provide billions in economic aid at all levels to offset the negative effects of COVID-19, to make possible the construction of a portion of overdue infrastructure upgrades and for investments in technology to make the U.S. competitive against the rest of the world.
All necessary and admirable. The results were that the U.S. recovered from the effects of the virus and supply chain shortcomings far faster and to a higher degree than did other countries. And at the same time the U.S. was producing record amounts of fossil fuels, so much that natural gas was being shipped overseas.
Biden moved the country significantly forward in using a greater percentage of renewable energy. Investments and incentives at all levels moved solar and wind power generation and battery development forward. In the U.S., coal is now in the minority.
More than a million students now have reduced or no student loan debt, thanks to Biden. That needed to be done, freeing students from lifelong debt, the impacts of predatory and rapacious institutions, high interest rates, and, yes, sometimes poor decision-making.
Without hesitation, Biden’s administration built a coalition of multiple countries to support Ukraine, and there are no Americans on the ground. At this final moment, it appears as if the fighting between Israel and Hamas may be ending. That result has been built on months of efforts by the Biden administration. Diplomacy has enormous value.
Awards in the sciences and humanities and for leadership in democracy, Biden was comfortable delivering.
A year from now, how Biden’s presidency – a culmination of 50 years of public service – is viewed will be different.
Thank you, Joe Biden.
