In ‘The Last Politician,’ Franklin Foer unfolds Joe Biden’s record of achievement and command. But voters haven’t gotten to see it.

psychothumbs@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 94 points –
A Hemmed-In Presidency
prospect.org
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Biden is literally one thing: Not Trump. He's not inspiring, he doesn't energize people to go out and vote, hes not as good a speaker as Obama, not as funny to laugh at as GW Bush, and not as doom-post bait as Trump. Idk who they were trying to tap into with a Biden movie(book i misread). People literally vocalized that they voted for him because they wanted to stop caring about politics again. You'd still pull more Biden voter views with a movie about Trump and thats half the problem with our political media in general.

He's not everything I'd like in a president, but he's done better than expected and more than I thought possible given the stagnation and division in congress. I think better of him as a president now than when I voted for him because I simply thought he wasn't trump. Definitely think that's worth acknowledging, and denying it isn't doing his campaign for reelection any favors.

Idk what any of that has to do with how a book about Biden isn't a good idea. Honestly just seems like you wanted to talk about how much you like him, fair, but what's that got to do with what I said?

They're saying your initial point about him being literally one thing, not Trump, may lack a bit of nuance. If there's nuance, then maybe there's room for a book about the guy. If you took a second to comprehend what's said to you instead of getting ready for an argument maybe you'd save yourself some time. If you just want to scream into the wind with no response stand on a cliff.

Seems to me that it's more like you just wanted to talk about how you didn't like him.

Is there something in particular about this book that you think is off? It's standard procedure for US Presidents to have books written about them, and far more mundane people than Biden have gotten the same treatment.

The fundamental job of the president is not to make you feel good or to make you laugh, and people assessing politicians based on vibes rather than actual performance is a huge part of why we're in this mess.

Which is why im puzzled on why someone made a movie about Biden. I'm not sure what you're trying to say here.

What does that even mean? Who made a movie about him? Is it kissing his ass? I mean they made a movie about Cheney and it portrayed him pretty unflatteringly.

I misread the article, the book about Biden, thought it said it was a movie, but literally the one the article is about. Yeah they made a movie about Cheney being a dick, thats what made it a good movie, the drama. Biden doesn't have the kind of entertainment pull as any of the recent presidents, how many comments do I need to say the same point?

So you are upset that someone wrote a book about a *checks notes" President of the United States because he's....too boring?

Where did I say I was upset, I was wondering who and how many people they thought they were gonna reach.

Keep underestimating him. That's worked so well in the past.

Keep underestimating him. That’s worked so well in the past.

Lol what is this referring to? No one's ever underestimated biden, or been surprised by him.

He was chosen as VP for his blandness - he was the stalest pale male they could find to contrast with Obama being young and very much not white. That went as expected.

He won the presidential nomination as expected, due to being the blandest candidate available to soak up anti trump votes without pissing anyone off.

He was widely predicted to narrowly win the presidency, and did. No one expected him to do anything of consequence - positive or negative - and indeed he hasn't.

Sure, keep going.

Bland is it?

Keep underestimating him. That’s worked so well in the past.

What were you referring to with this comment?

His signature bill got shreaded to 1/3rd its size so Id say you're correct despire your sarcasm begging for people to think otherwise.

Which signature bill? There is more than one. That's how the the government works. What goes into the meat grinder isn't necessarily sausage at the other end.

His infrastructure bill is his only signature bill. Its the one he championed and ran on implimenting. People comared his infrastructure goals to Obamas ACA bill. There no bill that come close to it in respect to being Bidens signature piece if legislation. Idk why you're trying to muddy the waters like hes passed dozens of landmark bills he championed himself.

You got the Anerican Rescue Plan, which allowed people and business to survive the pandemic. Infrastructure Act, Gun legislation, CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. All of which are historic and important. If I had to pick one that is his signature legislation, I'd say it is the Inflation Reduction Act. It provided money to combat climate change through tax changes to business and the Uber wealthy while lowering the deficit. It also worked on health with Medicare negotiation of drug prices...stuff like that. He didn't get universal preK, paid family leave or child tax credits in that bill as he wanted, but that's the way it works sometimes.

The American Rescue Act was a budget reconciliation bill made by floor democrats, all Biden did was sign it, that doesn't make it his legislation. The exact same is true about the Inflation reduction act. The CHIPS act is not of Bidens design either, and the gun violence act is hardly on the same level as the Infrastructure bill. A 'signature' bill doesn't just mean any bill he signed weather he was part of the drafting, negotiations, etc. or not. The only one he has put that level of his own work into is the infrastructure act, that belongs to him. Plus even if they were his bills, your arguement then would be a budget reconciliation, something that is legally requred to be passed every session of congress, was his greatest feat? Thats not a better look than his actual signature bill being cut to one third.

Boy, you really must be an insider to know who designed what.

lmfao bro it's a public process, no ones hiding who introduced, debated, or amended these bills and google is free. All you have to pay is attention.

You don't understand how the executive branch works with congress. They don't design, introduce, or sponsor legislation. What the President's liason does do is provide concept and negotiate.

As long as he keeps his thumb up his ass about climate than I could care less. I will vote for him again because he's not Trump, but I'm really mostly a single-issue voter at this point. We should treat climate like a war at this point and shift our economy around it.

I wish moderates would be honest about Biden.

They keep wanting everyone to treat him like some amazing politician, he got his ass handed to him in three primaries and only won his fourth because the party got like 8 people to drop in a week and endorse him. And they did that by all claiming Biden was super progressive.

He's better than trump, so I'll vote for him again. Which seems to be a common sentiment among people who voted for him last time.

It's a sad testament to the American electoral system that "being better than the other candidate" is a selling point, but here we are. Biden was my third choice among the D field but I voted for him with no regrets and in my view he has wildly overachieved. It's like the screaming toddlers on the other side of the aisle can be contained by calm, experienced adults or something, and oh shit it turns out Biden knows his business after all.

I look forward to voting for Biden again against whatever shit-flinging howler monkey the GOP chooses to nominate.

Handling the toddlers on the train while the train’s still headed off a climate cliff is not as impressive as you seem to think.

Candidates drop out because the lose money or support. Biden didn't. Others did.

I’m sure that’s what they taught you in civics class. If you don’t think politicians play political games, I have a lovely bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. Even if every campaign closed due to lack of funds, what exact day they close and who they endorse are up for grabs, and that can make a very big difference.

Only reason. He is horrible and should of went away after he was VP.

Biden has experience and a broad view of the Shit That Needs To Be Done.

He’s not in the job to make rallies go crazy. He’s not interested in leading a cult. He just wants to actually serve the American people, not grift the stupid.

the amount of people expecting politicians to be entertaining too damn high!

When people start supporting potential candidates from the ground up there will be quality candidates at the top. Until then we get what we get.

Maybe if it was a fair fight...

Did you forget about when the DNC got taken to court for bias in the primary and their legal defense was:

We're a private organization that can do what it wants, we don't even have to hold a primary or run who wins. And that's 100% legal.

They won the court case, because it's true

Our system is fucked, and I have trouble believing people who pretend it's not.

Instead of buying twitter, musk could have donated that money to the DNC over a couple of years and gotten his cronies into leadership positions because all the DNC cares about is donations.

It would be a completely legal take over of one of the only two political parties in America, and there's still nothing from stopping it

Stop pretending everything is fine until it burns down. Start installing a sprinkler system so we can stop it from burning down .

You sweet summer child. Ground-up grassroots candidates (in the US, at least) are usually crushed before you even know their names. Always have been. We’d have to have a completely different system for them to even be in the running. It’s designed that way.