OPINION
MICHELLE
COTTLE
Biden Underpromises, Overdelivers
April 27,
2021
Michelle
Cottle
By Michelle
Cottle
Ms. Cottle
is a member of the editorial board.
Like any
employee, President Biden has to suffer through periodic performance reviews.
Thursday marks his 100th day in office — a time-honored if vaguely arbitrary
milestone at which a president’s early moves are sliced, diced and spun for all
the world to judge. How many bills has he gotten passed? Whom has he appointed?
How many executive orders has he signed? Which promises has he broken? Which
constituencies has he ticked off?
Mr. Biden
took office under extraordinary circumstances, with the nation confronting what
he has called a quartet of “converging crises”: a lethal pandemic, economic
uncertainty, climate change and racial injustice. Bold policy action was
needed. So, too, was an effort to neutralize the toxic politics of the Trump
era — which, among other damage, spawned a large reality-free zone in which the
bulk of Republicans buy the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
All of
which feels like a lot for one mild-mannered 78-year-old to tackle in his first
three or so months. Then again, Mr. Biden is built to keep chugging along in
the face of adversity, tragedy and lousy odds. That’s how he rolls. And while
his first 100 days have been far from flawless, they reflect a clear
understanding of why he was elected and what the American people now expect of
him.
The
president moved fast and went big on his signature challenge: confronting the
one-two public-health-and-economic punch of the pandemic. He asked Congress for
a $1.9 trillion relief package, and Congress basically gave him a $1.9 trillion
relief package. Did Republican lawmakers sign on? No, they did not. But the
ambitious bill — which went so far as to establish a (temporary) guaranteed
income for families with children — drew strong bipartisan support from the
public. That was good enough for the White House.
Mr. Biden
also showed that he knows how to play the expectations game: underpromise, then
overdeliver. He initially pledged to get 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in
arms by his 100th day in office. The nation crushed that target in mid-March, prompting
Mr. Biden to up the goal to 200 million shots by Day 100. That hurdle was
cleared last week.
He has
fulfilled a range of more targeted promises, largely through executive action.
He jettisoned Donald Trump’s repugnant Muslim ban and established a task force
to reunite migrant families separated at the southwestern border. He put the
United States back in the World Health Organization and the Paris climate
accord. He directed federal agencies to conduct internal audits, with an eye
toward advancing racial equity, and he rescinded the Trump ban on transgender
troops in the military. He hasn’t persuaded Congress to raise the federal
minimum wage to $15 an hour, but he is upping it for federal contractors.
With
foreign policy, Mr. Biden has surprised some with his announcement that all
U.S. combat troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. Depending on
your perspective, this decision is either long overdue or a disaster in the
making. Either way, the president wanted to show that he can make the tough
calls.
Mr. Biden
has had his share of early flubs, most notably on immigration. The White House
was clearly unprepared to handle the influx of migrant children over the
U.S.-Mexico border and has been scrambling to deal with the record number of
arrivals. Yes, he inherited a dysfunctional system. But even some congressional
Democrats have complained that his administration failed early on to telegraph
a clear message about its policy and plans. Republicans have rushed to exploit
the tragedy, with some lawmakers touring the border sporting camo ensembles
that made them look like “Duck Dynasty” rejects.
Border
anxiety also led Mr. Biden to stumble on the issue of refugee admissions. In
February he pledged to raise the ceiling to 62,500, from the record low of
15,000 set by Mr. Trump. But on April 16 the White House announced that the
Trump cap would remain. Blowback ensued. Hours later, the White House claimed
that there had been “confusion” about the directive and that a higher level
would be set by mid-May — though probably not as high as the original pledge.
Now the 62,500 level is back in discussion. Such flip-floppery does not inspire
confidence.
For many
voters, of course, Mr. Biden’s core appeal was not grounded in policy
particulars. They were drawn to his message of unity, his pledge to defuse the
division and rage fostered by Mr. Trump. This whole idea struck some as hokey,
not to mention absurdly naïve. But Mr. Biden does appear to be making a quirky
sort of progress.
He’s making
the presidency boring again. Mock if you will, but this is a major achievement
— one welcomed by many exhausted Americans. Gone are the “executive time”
Twitter rants, rambling call-ins to Fox News and near daily assaults on
democracy that defined the Trump presidency. Mr. Biden likes to keep things
low-key, doesn’t hog the spotlight and largely avoids the culture-war
freak-outs roiling the other side. While the MAGA-verse spins itself into a
tizzy over the supposed cancellation of Dr. Seuss and emasculation of Mr.
Potato Head, Mr. Biden keeps his head down and keeps pushing his policies.
He’s
restoring humanity to the job. Whether the crisis is a police shooting, the enormous
toll of the pandemic or the everyday economic challenges of so many Americans,
Mr. Biden approaches the issue with compassion and decency. His aim is to
comfort rather than to inflame. This may not seem as if it should be a big
deal, but post-Trump, here we are.
He’s making
bipartisanship cool again. No, Mr. Biden has not ushered in a new golden age of
cross-aisle compromise — nor is he likely to. And even as he invites Republican
lawmakers over for cozy White House chats, he has made clear he won’t get
bogged down in trying to win their support. He and his people learned during
the Obama years not to go down that rabbit hole. Mr. Biden has, in fact, sorely
irritated some moderate Senate Republicans who think that he isn’t treating
their outreach efforts with the proper respect.
Even so,
the president’s political brand is so, well, avuncular that much of the public
sees him as a nonradical, politically moderate kind of guy. This has some
Republicans, especially Senate moderates, talking up their love of
bipartisanship and compromise, lest they look like the unreasonable ones.
All of this
is making it hard for his political opponents to vilify him — about which
Republican lawmakers have expressed their dismay. Instead, more than three
months in, they’re still trying to cast him as a puppet of “radicals”:
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Squad, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
the White House chief of staff, Ron Klain. You know Republicans are having a
rough time when Senator John Cornyn of Texas is reduced to grumping about Mr.
Biden’s lack of Twitter tantrums and speculating that the president’s low
profile means he’s not really in charge.
At this
point, polls show a slight majority of the American public approve of their new
hire. Mr. Biden’s numbers are lower than what most of his non-Trumpian
predecessors enjoyed at this point, but they’re none too shabby, considering
these hyperpolarized, reality-challenged times.
Michelle
Cottle is a member of the editorial board. @mcottle
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