FACING CHALLENGES

Joe Biden takes office amid national emergencies

Joe Biden wanted to be president for a long time.

He launched his first campaign for the office in 1988 and has thrown his hat in the ring several times since. He made it to the White House as President Barack Obama’s vice president, but the top political post eluded him.

That all changed last Wednesday when Biden, 78, of Delaware was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States — a moment of political triumph that had been decades in the making.

But in all those decades of dreaming he likely never imagined he would be assuming the post at a time of seemingly unprecedented challenges.

It happened while a global pandemic continues to claim lives, upends our personal and professional worlds, ravages the world economy and exposes vast disparities within the American society.

It happened as the country continues to search for answers in the wake of the deadly insurrection on Capitol Hill that took place just two weeks before in an attempt to disrupt the transfer of power.

While capturing the presidency may be a dream come true for Biden, it’s clear the moment he took the oath of office he was confronted with a unique number of immense national emergencies.

The pandemic

There is trouble on every front. But the biggest challenge Biden will face is building support for his recently unveiled national strategy to respond to the COVID crisis.

His plan, some details of which he has already unveiled, focuses on expanding testing and vaccine distribution. It includes the creation of a Pandemic Testing Board that can help ramp up testing capacity and a proposal to get more money to states that have pleaded for funding for testing and vaccination efforts.

Local political experts said rolling out a new strategy to address the pandemic was the correct first move for a Biden administration that wants to win over a struggling nation.

“A lot of the other challenges are certainly being exacerbated by this health crisis so getting a handle on that as much as he can as early as he can is essential for everything that follows,” said Chris Borick, the director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion in Allentown. “There’s no doubt that the pandemic must be his very first priority.”

Borick said building support among the people for his plan will follow when Biden can show

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday at the Capitol by Chief Justice John Roberts as Jill Biden holds the Bible. Biden has big plans as he faces big problems. Berks County and state pundits, pollsters, politicians and party leaders have different assessments about how Biden should go about managing the country.