Joe's Magic Pens

 

When Joe Biden walked into the Oval Office for the first time as President a month ago, his pens were ready. Lining a fine wooden box, they bore the Presidential seal and an imprint of his signature, a task done in advance of his swearing-in as Joe had planned to paper the Oval Office walls with his directives.

Four years ago, such pens were just one more little drama in Donald Trump’s White House. The gold-plated signature pens Joe favored had to be placed on rush order.  Over time, Trump came to favor Sharpies over the government-issued pens.

On matters more profound than pens, Joe Biden is out to show the days of a seat-of-the-pants Presidency are in his hands. He wants to show his outrage can be contained and things can get done by his book. And, the new guy can erase the legacy of Donald J. Trump as Joe Biden is his own man!  Or perhaps a super-hero and not a "one horse pony!"  Could he be trying to recall the old "one trick pony?"

On policy, symbolism and style, from the Earth’s climate to what’s not on his desk.  Biden has been purging Trumpism however he can in an opening stretch that is wholly unlike the turmoil and trouble of his predecessor’s first month, he claims.

The test for Biden is whether his stylistic changes will be matched by policies that deliver a marked improvement from Trump, and a month is not long enough to measure it, says he as little happens.  The length of Biden’s honeymoon is likely to be brief in highly polarized Washington, with Republicans already saying Biden has caved to the left wing of the Democrat Party.

The first time the nation saw Biden in the Oval Office, hours after he was sworn in, he sat behind the Resolute Desk with a mask on his face looking more like a tourist visitor than a man who belonged there.  Joe would know that better then anyone.  Is he telling us something in his behaviors?

Trump, of course, had eschewed masks. Not only that, but he had made their use a culture war totem and political cudgel even as thousands of Americans were dying each day from a virus that properly worn masks can ward off according to Dr. Anthony Fauci depending on the day you talked to him.

Though Biden wore a mask in the campaign, seeing it on the face of the new President at the desk in the famed Oval Office made a different message. Biden wants to make a sharp break with Trump, but he is acting in a way that will sentence him into playing MacBeth as his Presidency will surely become a disaster by any of several paths.

Gone are the predawn tweets that rattled Washington with impromptu policy announcements and rhetoric. Gone are the extended, off-the-cuff, combative exchanges with the “enemy of the people” mainstream press, but replacing them are utterances that have inspired a dozen Democrat members of Congress that the nuclear codes be taken from Joe and put in the hands of a committee.  We are surprised as they have done a good job of covering his deficiencies and this action puts the issue on the first page!

Gone are rosy projections about the virus and the shameless attempts of not only “taking the reins,” but claiming the history, authorship and credits for this success! The new infection rate is now in steep decline.  Biden had nothing to do with this and being a Democrat is expected to try to claim credit for the success.

For the record Biden criticized Trump for stopping travel between China and the United States the instant the virus and source were defined.  He also criticized the way Trump handled the economy in the pandemic saying, “You had the former guy saying that, well, you know, we’re just going to open things up, and that’s all we need to do,” Biden told his first town-hall meeting as President, this past week. “We said, no, you’ve got to deal with the disease before you deal with getting the economy going.”  Whatever you do Joe, never use the word “consistency.”

A pattern emerged: The President and his team would deliberately set expectations low; particularly on vaccinations and school reopenings then try to get a political win by beating that timetable.

Biden’s team installed a discipline within the walls of the West Wing likely due to his “space-in-ess.” Biden has only held one extended question-and-answer session with reporters, and his exchanges in the Oval Office or before boarding Marine One have been very brief.

The daily press briefings are back, this time with sign language. Pets roam the White House lawn again. Fires crackle in the White House fireplace. Biden says he begins his day by working out, making coffee and eating yogurt or Raisin Bran.

At his town hall event in Wisconsin, Biden repeatedly talked about how he doesn’t want to talk about the former guy, but then does.

“I’m tired of talking about Donald Trump, don’t want to talk about him anymore,” he said. “For four years, all that’s been in the news is Trump. The next four years, I want to make sure all the news is the American people.”  Sure Joe…

There is a strong indication Mr. Trump is still very much “in-the-game.”  He is speaking in Florida this weekend at a Republican CPAC Meeting and the nation will be watching.

Adrian Vance