I was so glad to see President Biden speak clearly and forcefully last night about the true scale of the threat facing our democracy. The history is clear: Biden was right to link Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin with both the Confederacy and the Axis powers of World War 2, and he was right to stand squarely with Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
[Read more…] about Why Biden was right to link MAGA, the Confederacy & the Axis in his SOTU addressjoe biden
A Good Man
With his experience, knowledge, and skills, Joe Biden will be one of the most qualified presidents in history. He will also be one of the best-liked by virtually everyone who has encountered him.
He is a thoroughly good man.
And by itself that will make a transformational difference. Leadership isn’t about what you impose on people, it’s about what you summon from them.
What’s Seen and What’s Summoned
Many people can’t understand why Joe Biden talks so optimistically about the American people, like he did again today. After all, nearly half of Americans have stuck with Trump, even after four years of corruption, cruelty, and incompetence.
I think it’s because Biden knows that what matters isn’t just what a leader sees in people, but what he summons from them.
Trump summoned the worst in us, and we saw a lot of it. Biden is determined to summon the best.
And it will probably work — not perfectly, but well enough.
That’s because the same people who do terrible things can also do great things. Germans built both the Third Reich and one of the most enlightened democracies in the world. Our history includes both slave-owners and the Greatest Generation.
In history to come, our generation will be seen as far from the greatest. But by counting on us to be good, Biden can help us be better.
i24’s “Stateside” with David Shuster: Joe Biden
I was on “Stateside” on the Israeli global news network i24 on March 20, 2019 to talk about the “inappropriate touching” allegations against Joe Biden.