During the 2020 presidential primary, Joe Biden was not my first choice. As it became increasingly clear that he would be the nominee, I began to re-think my position.
There were those - especially on the left - who criticized Biden as some kind of war hawk. They threw those accusations around, but I never saw any evidence other than the fact that he had voted for Bush's invasion of Iraq. While that was, indeed, a serious mistake, a further look at Biden's record showed that, even while serving as Obama's vice president, he had consistently counseled against the use of military force.
During some of the most controversial foreign policy decisions of the Obama era, Biden consistently counseled against military intervention. He spoke out against a troop surge in Afghanistan and followed that up with attempts to negotiate a power-sharing agreement between the Taliban and the Afghan government. Biden also counseled against U.S. military involvement in Libya and Syria.
It eventually occurred to me that the former guy had left the entire federal government in shambles and our credibility around the globe in tatters. With Biden's years of experience in both the legislative and executive branches of government, none of the other candidates were as prepared as he was to clean up the mess.
Many of the challenges faced by presidents come from their struggle to implement the agenda they proposed during the campaign. But over the years I've begun to realize that it is the unexpected challenges that are even more significant. That's why it is important to look beyond a platform to gauge the person's history and character.
All of that is why I'm now prepared to say that, among other things, Putin's invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated that Joe Biden was the best choice for Democrats in 2020. Allan Katz, who served as Obama's ambassador to Portugal, explained why.
The President has filled his government with other Washington careerists, people he knows and trusts, who told us they were the pros and unlike the amateur hour we had experienced for the previous four years, they knew what they were doing...
The Biden team acted quickly on the Ukraine crisis in a number of important areas and arenas. Perhaps most importantly, even before the invasion, the Biden administration made a bold decision to share intelligence information of Russia's plan to invade Ukraine with the world, which prepared the West for the united front it displayed in sanctioning Russia en masse. Those sanctions were also the result of careful planning by the Biden administration, which developed a group of sanctions and people to be sanctioned that went to the heart of the power structure in Russia.
Next, they assembled a large group of countries to support the effort and were able to galvanize not only NATO countries but the entire EU...Almost singlehandedly and against criticism from every corner, Biden is preserving NATO, regaining America's position as the leader of the West and showing the steely determination needed in this type of crisis...
As we navigate the next couple of incredibly dangerous weeks, it is comforting that we have a leader who knows where he is going and how to get there. In a career of fine moments, this may be President Biden's finest.
That kind of analysis conflicts with the recent media narrative about Biden committing a major "gaffe" during his speech in Warsaw when he said that Putin cannot remain in power. During a briefing on Monday, that is all the White House Press Corp wanted to talk about.
"I don't care what he thinks. Look, he's going to do what he's going to do."
— CNN (@CNN) March 28, 2022
President Biden was pressed by journalists on his comments regarding Russian President Putin over the weekend. Watch more here: https://t.co/5kbKGTp4I4 pic.twitter.com/8WLXmaCYus
As a result of that kind of obsession, here are some of the things from Biden's speech in Warsaw that most Americans will never hear about.
Be not afraid.
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) March 27, 2022
Under President Biden's steadfast leadership, we will remain united. pic.twitter.com/zcrQMLOOCI
From people who actually know something about the subject matter and listened to the entire speech, the reaction was profound.
Since the late 1970s I have listened to literally hundreds of Joe Biden speeches, most of them in person on the Senate floor.
— Mike Walker (@New_Narrative) March 26, 2022
This was Joe Biden’s best speech ever. Just what Ukraine and the world needed at this point in history.
Take it from this Berliner who was there when the Iron Curtain started falling in 1989, this is one of the most consequential speeches from an American president in decades. Thank you 🇺🇸🗽 @WHCOS @SecBlinken @SecDef pic.twitter.com/uakcFy3uCB
— Michael Marquardt (@MarquardtGlobal) March 26, 2022
This was an historical speech for @POTUS. Like Kennedy’s Berlin Speech, this is the one Biden will be remembered for. Biden laid down a marker that the US will defend its allies & democracy. I’m proud of my POTUS & his powerful leadership during a climactic battle for democracy.
— Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) March 26, 2022
To the naysayers who've been suggesting that the last nine words of Biden's speech would somehow cause Putin to dangerously escalate, Tuesday morning's news points in the opposite direction.
"To increase mutual trust for future negotiations" = "we couldn't take Kyiv." https://t.co/0MZDubXJdo
— Matthew Kupfer (@Matthew_Kupfer) March 29, 2022
Nevertheless, the story most Americans will hear is that Biden committed a dangerous gaffe - which gives right wing news more fuel for their claims that he is incompetent. When it comes to the president's low approval rating, there is no need to look any further for an explanation.
The question this raises is why the majority of the media are focused on "winning a game of gotcha with the leader of the free world at a moment of great crisis when serious issues loom everywhere," as David Rothkoph suggested.
The answer to that question is more complex than most people assume. But lately I've been pondering one contributor. Back in 2015 then-President Obama interviewed the author Marilynne Robinson. Something she said stuck with me.
I think one of the things that is true is that many Americans on every side of every issue, they think that the worst thing they can say is the truest thing, you know?
As an example, Robinson went on to share that, even though America has a system of universities that are the envy of the world, they are constantly criticized. She summed up with this:
We have a great educational system that is—it’s really a triumph of the civilization. I don’t think there’s anything comparable in history. And it has no defenders. Most of the things we do have no defenders because people tend to feel the worst thing you can say is the truest thing you can say.
Basically what she said is that cynicism (a focus on "the worst thing") has been embraced as the only pathway to the truth. Nowhere is that more evident than in our mainstream media.
Anyone who doubts that need only look at how Politico attacked Jennifer Rubin for being "one of the most reliable defenders of the Biden administration." To defend the president (or Democrats) makes one a partisan whose opinions can be dismissed.
But I, for one, am willing to stand up and say that I have never been more proud of the vote I cast for Joe Biden.
As is so often the case, I completely agree with you Ms. LeTourneau. I personally think Biden has been brilliant these past weeks during what is certainly the most dangerous moment in world history since the second world war. The fact that it is not being reported that way is the fault of the media. Those same folks who have caused so much trouble in so many ways.
ReplyDeleteDitto. Thanks Nancy.
ReplyDeleteAgreed with everyone here! Just yesterday, as the headlines were labeling Russia's move as a retreat and even a step toward peace, a column at the New Republic had the unfortunate timing of insisting that Biden had made both impossible.
ReplyDeleteI feel proud, but still despairing. The right either supports Putin or, as always, can't get enough war. Others, too, complain that Biden is doing nothing, when he has both set the right moral tone and coordinated a united Western response, and his arming of the Ukraine is obviously paying off, even should Russia's clear advantages in sheer force bring it victory. That leaves the mainstream press, looking for a sound bit in accord with its past pat story line, to label Biden's speech as, you know, his habit of misspeaking, only now sheer doddering. And definitely its bothsiderism shades quickly and easily into setting a higher bar for a Democratic president and Democrats in Congress.
The result? For maybe the first time ever, a war and a crisis hasn't led the public to rally round the leaders regardless of their actions, and Biden's poll numbers even dropped further. I give up.
I have hardly ever taken an opposing point of view with Nancy's writing, and I'm not about to start to do so. With this article, I feel vindicated with my vote and with my public (and private) efforts to encourage support for President Biden's election. In my readings and in my understandings of how government works, I look for those times and opportunities when a leader leads towards the goal of consensus and community direction. Biden did the (almost) impossible when he rallied the NATO and EU blocs in common support of each other's opposition to Putin's war and in support of relief to Ukraine. For us Americans this should be a recall of the need for and success of the Berlin airlift following WWII and the partitioning of Germany. My German relatives were never more proud to be Americans than at that time. We were, in their words, saving the downtrodden, the enslaved, the defeated humankind of the Warsaw Bloc. I see these times as even more important because like the airlift, we had a common goal to save mankind and not to enter into an even more devastating war. I bleed for Ukraine, and I am grateful that President Biden resists the temptation to force American into yet another never-ending war, because this one will invariably include the use of nuclear weapons in all areas of the world. Those entangling alliances of the pre-WWI era still exist in forms that will, this time, result in the worst catastrophe imaginable. And, that is what we'd have if tramp were still in office. War is not always the answer and now, more than ever, we require clear thinking, a lack of bully leadership, and practiced common sense diplomacy. (And, yeah, I agree with President Biden's closing comment in Warsaw.)
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