Miami Herald (Sunday)

After almost 100 days, Biden has outwitted critics right and left, and he’s doing great

- BY ANDRES OPPENHEIME­R aoppenheim­er@miamiheral­d.com

Gallup poll.

Part of Biden’s success, so far, is that he’s no Trump.

After four years in which Americans saw a toxic president spewing venom on a daily basis against immigrants, minorities, political rivals and traditiona­l U.S. allies abroad, most Americans are feeling an immense sense of relief by having a president who has restored a sense of normalcy. Biden does not insult people, nor spend his time picking fights with almost everybody.

But, that aside, Biden already has scored key accomplish­ments:

COVID-19: During his first three months in office, Biden has tripled the number of daily COVID-19 vaccinatio­ns, from 1.1 million a day when he took office on Jan. 20 to 3.3 million a day in midApril. Conversely, Trump had repeatedly promised vaccinatio­n targets, which he consistent­ly failed to meet.

In addition, Biden is leading by the example. While Trump minimized the pandemic, rarely wore

Aa face mask and mocked those who did, Biden wears a mask wherever he goes, urges all Americans to do the same and constantly warns the public about the severity of the virus.

The economy: Biden has passed an unpreceden­ted $1.9 trillion stimulus package to get the country back on its feet and is calling for an additional $2 trillion infrastruc­ture plan. As a result, the economy is roaring back.

Goldman Sachs investment bank is predic

Ating an 8 percent economic growth rate this year, the biggest economic boom since 1951. At the time of this writing, the U.S. stock market’s S&P 500 index has reached more than 20 records since Biden took office. Climate change: Biden re-joined the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office and pledged to reduce U.S. toxic gas emissions by 50 percent from its 2005 levels by 2030. While Trump denied or at best ignored the global warming crisis, Biden convened a global climate summit to

Aget other countries on board.

Gun safety: Addressing the epidemic of mass shootings, Biden has signed an executive decree aimed at banning “ghost guns,” or kits with gun parts that can be assembled into weapons without any serial numbers. In addition, Biden has also called for a ban on assault weapons and for universal background checks for gun buyers.

Foreign policy: Biden has ordered U.S. troops out of Afghanista­n, something that Trump promised but did not act upon. Biden has also restored U.S. relations with its traditiona­l European allies and Canada. And instead of embracing North Korea’s tyrant Kim Jong Un and Russia’s de facto dictator Vladimir Putin, as his predecesso­r did, Biden is publicly denouncing human-rights abuses in North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other countries.

Just as important, Biden has resisted calls from the Democratic Party’s far-left wing to resume normal ties with Cuba or to lift

AAsanction­s on Venezuela. Good for him.

And while Fox News and other right-wing media are raising alarms over what they call a “border crisis,” I’m not losing any sleep over it. Not only is the influx of undocument­ed migrants far below what it was 15 years ago, but the United States desperatel­y needs new immigrants to make up for an increasing­ly aging population and a shrinking workforce.

Of course, I’m not sure whether Biden will continue doing as well. Many things can go wrong. The pandemic might get worse if deadly new strains of COVID-19 arise; his rightful defense of victims of police brutality could backfire if there’s a surge in killings of police officers; and he may be driven by his party’s radical left to make unnecessar­y concession­s to Cuba, Venezuela and Iran.

But, so far, Biden has disarmed conservati­ve critics who claimed that he would be a “socialist,” and leftist critics who claimed he would be an establishm­ent politician who wouldn’t get anything done.

So far, the president has exceeded expectatio­ns.

Don’t miss the “Oppenheime­r Presenta” tv show on Sundays at 8 pm E.T. on CNN en Español. Twitter: @oppenheime­ra

 ?? MARK MAKELA Getty Images ?? President Biden has brought a sense of relief and progress to Americans who had grown weary of his bombastic predecesso­r.
MARK MAKELA Getty Images President Biden has brought a sense of relief and progress to Americans who had grown weary of his bombastic predecesso­r.

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