Biden grasped what the media did not

"Several points deserve emphasis. First, Biden has been consistently underestimated by the chattering class. He was boring, a weak debater, too old, not progressive enough, they said during the campaign. Biden and his team had the confidence and experience to ignore the trite, conventional and wrongheaded “take” that Democrats were looking for a fire-breathing socialist in 2020. They knew to ignore Twitter, ignore the complaints about an “ambitious” vice president and ignore sneering about his campaign from the basement. What pundits would like to chalk up to luck was in fact a savvy, disciplined campaign.

Second, the laser-like focus that served him well in the election also helped him secure the biggest progressive victory in history. As many center-left Democrats argued during the campaign, the way to win the biggest gains for progressives is to elect someone from the center of the party. (Hearing the enthusiastic praise for Biden’s achievements from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, his former primary competitors, proves the point.)

Biden might have been the only candidate who could have won in 2020, and the only one who could have delivered a huge win less than 50 days into his term. (“Biden is in some ways the ideal messenger for their spending blitz,” The Post reports. “A septuagenarian who spent four decades in Congress, the president is hard to portray as a socialist or radical leftist — even as he advances some ambitious expansions of government spending, including a major new child tax benefit.”) Just as he did in the campaign, he rejected media entreaties to respond to the latest outburst from the disgraced and now former president or from his hysterical enablers obsessed with irrelevant cultural memes. He would not be knocked off message."
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Good analysis by Ruben. Will the media, conservatives and leftists continue to underestimate "Sleepy Joe?

j brown's body said:

"Several points deserve emphasis. First, Biden has been consistently underestimated by the chattering class. He was boring, a weak debater, too old, not progressive enough, they said during the campaign. Biden and his team had the confidence and experience to ignore the trite, conventional and wrongheaded “take” that Democrats were looking for a fire-breathing socialist in 2020. They knew to ignore Twitter, ignore the complaints about an “ambitious” vice president and ignore sneering about his campaign from the basement. What pundits would like to chalk up to luck was in fact a savvy, disciplined campaign.

Second, the laser-like focus that served him well in the election also helped him secure the biggest progressive victory in history. As many center-left Democrats argued during the campaign, the way to win the biggest gains for progressives is to elect someone from the center of the party. (Hearing the enthusiastic praise for Biden’s achievements from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, his former primary competitors, proves the point.)

Biden might have been the only candidate who could have won in 2020, and the only one who could have delivered a huge win less than 50 days into his term. (“Biden is in some ways the ideal messenger for their spending blitz,” The Post reports. “A septuagenarian who spent four decades in Congress, the president is hard to portray as a socialist or radical leftist — even as he advances some ambitious expansions of government spending, including a major new child tax benefit.”) Just as he did in the campaign, he rejected media entreaties to respond to the latest outburst from the disgraced and now former president or from his hysterical enablers obsessed with irrelevant cultural memes. He would not be knocked off message."

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Good analysis by Ruben. Will the media, conservatives and leftists continue to underestimate "Sleepy Joe?

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President Biden seems to be speaking softly and carrying a big stick. Works for me.

j brown's body said:

"Several points deserve emphasis. First, Biden has been consistently underestimated by the chattering class. He was boring, a weak debater, too old, not progressive enough, they said during the campaign. Biden and his team had the confidence and experience to ignore the trite, conventional and wrongheaded “take” that Democrats were looking for a fire-breathing socialist in 2020. They knew to ignore Twitter, ignore the complaints about an “ambitious” vice president and ignore sneering about his campaign from the basement. What pundits would like to chalk up to luck was in fact a savvy, disciplined campaign.

Click to expand...

I really admire Biden's discipline to messaging. His experience and maturity are on display as he takes control of both policy development and marketing. His team is more disciplined, qualified and experienced as well and we're unlikely to see the chaotic mess of the past four years - few if any resignations, terminations and arrests.

Yes, good points by Ruben. I imagine they'll keep on underestimating him even though in less than two months in office he's gotten the vaccination situation massively improved as well as now getting the Covid Relief Bill passed soon etc.. He made sure he had really good, talented staff around him--Ron Klain, his Chief of Staff, is brilliant and is quite the mover and shaker. He will see to it that what needs to get done, gets done within his power to do so. Not getting knocked off message indeed. Biden does have a rough road to hoe in the future, I'm amazed at how lockstep all of the Republicans have been in the Senate and the House. I think their pandering to the base is going to be unsuccessful down the line.