Biden's words, actions should quiet his doubters

An unfortunate circumstance that comes with the privilege of the presidency is that one immediately inherits and takes blame for the errors, misjudgments and miscalculations of the previous administration. One must work to rectify them while putting in place one's own agenda. In the end, it is history that renders the judgment as to success or failure.

President Joe Biden was criticized ruthlessly by former President Donald Trump for how he spoke. Listening to Trump, one might have believed the Democrats were about to nominate a man that could barely express a cogent idea. Biden put that ridicule to rest very quickly at the party's convention in 2020, expressing in historically eloquent terms that “history had delivered America to one of the most difficult moments it had ever faced.”

Let us not forget that he took office amid a devastating pandemic and an economy reeling as badly as the Great Recession. More than 9 million jobs were lost due to the pandemic.

During President Biden's tenure, the economy has erased that job loss with 12 million new jobs, over 700,000 of them in manufacturing. His social programs may eventually be compared to former President Lyndon Johnson's “great society,” the infrastructure bill to rebuild this country. The inflation reduction act that targets climate change and allows medicare to negotiate drug prices is chief among them.

The lasting image for me is the recent one of the president, 80 years old, after a 10-hour train ride into Kyiv, air raid sirens in the background, standing up for Democracy and containment of Russian aggression. This will, indeed, be a presidential term to remember.