A plan to make President Joe Biden successful for the next three years – Orange County Register

Now, that’s funny.

I went hiking the night before, after work, listening to the news, it’s a crazy place these days to try to find humor.

However, it’s still there, in my ears – the evil Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, and accused President Joe Biden of engaging in “a word – a lie!” about voting rights in the United States.

As in all Bidenesque things, humor here is relative.

The very idea of ​​saying that President Number 46 could be accused of babbling – talking or shouting in an extravagant, impatient way – versus saying it all day, every day for four long years, that’s it. . The 45th Presidential style is objectively absurd.

Plus, amusing.

Will Joe Biden forever be named the most lightly praised for anything simply because whatever he does or says seems good compared to the crazy actions and actions that follow? literally the old guy?

It’s correct. The former president whom Biden rejected for a second term in a resounding victory is the most incompetent man to ever occupy the Oval Office. So it’s pretty easy to look good – smart, articulate, even sensible, working in the national interest rather than your ego – than that.

But here a year after Biden’s presidency, when it comes to assessing his work for the nation and the world, it’s clear Biden needs to start being assessed alone, rather than involving the Former Shipwreck.

And so far he’s been a mediocrity, a mid-range chairman, facing challenges that only a giant among executives can withstand.

He says and does the right things about the COVID-19 pandemic, but this virus is beyond gentle enough, smart enough to conspire to make any politician feel powerless over the ways of doing things. its evil.

He was ahead of his predecessor’s plans to get out of the hell of Afghanistan, to cut our losses reasonably, and when several Marines were catastrophically ambushed, it was give a permanent perspective to reactionary propagandists who would have completely ignored the deaths if their guy had called out the shots that day.

He spent big by printing money and sending it to restricted Americans, and when the inevitable arithmetic of inflation hit, he rightly received the highest price increase in 40 years.

Border? Nothing has changed at the border. Undocumented people come to the border for the economy, not the president.

My problem with Joe Biden is that I don’t have a dog in the fight – except for the sense of being a citizen and wanting things to get better instead of worse in our world.

I began to be deeply impressed by Biden when he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Supreme Court confirmation hearings Clarence Thomas, and the senator from Delaware, along with every subject Another chauvinist has left the wonderful and reliable Anita Hill. turbulent after her trusted sexual harassment allegation.

During his eight years as vice president, Biden, a man of average intelligence, had the misfortune of – fortunately, in a broader sense – to be served alongside a genius. It’s hard to look good in such circumstances.

Now, with a split Senate blocking his grand plans, with a cautious style of governance a step or two behind, with a House of Representatives almost guaranteed to shift control of the GOP. in the November election, Biden’s presidency is clearly in trouble. .

So here’s what he has to do. And it wasn’t my original idea, but I wanted to jump on the bandwagon, as all people of good will who aren’t merely partisan should. Like the rest of us, Biden hasn’t gotten younger. And he’s already the oldest president ever.

Joe Biden, with Kamala Harris by his side, should immediately schedule a prime-time White House address that both announce they will serve only one term.

But that made them instantly lame ducks, and consequentially helpless, some say.

I say the opposite. Right now, and likely in 2024, neither of them are re-elected. If they announce their intention to continue after this time, they are freed from the constraints of regulation from keeping an eye on opinion polls. Instead, they can just manage. That would be a blessing, not a burden. And, no, you wouldn’t want to make such a proposal to a hasty, hasty president. But Biden takes things down the middle. He’s not going to start a war just because he doesn’t have to face the voters again. Instead, he could make tough calls to help keep inflation in check, to ensure that fiercely fought voting rights are not stolen by the Americans again, tough on China. and Russia, keeping unvaccinated people out of crowded planes, to free up supply chains. By opting out of him, the good hopes of Democrats can start their own campaigns now without worrying about upsetting the incumbent. (The vice president, already famous as a sneeze anti-vaxxer at the office party, is a relatively young person, and will have time to reinvent himself and hope for a new political life in a decade or so.)

A year into his inauguration, Joe Biden doesn’t look like a Presidential Hall of Fame. Freed from the constraints that election worries bring, he can still surprise us, and bring us a good world.

Larry Wilson is on the editorial board of the Southern California News Group. lwilson@scng.com.