"SLEEPY" JOE ISN'T SLEEPY

President Joe Biden has just signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law today. It’s one of the most substantial pieces of legislation ever signed into law. Most importantly, it marks the first step, the first substantial commitment, to doing what is really necessary to meet the climate crisis.

But reading the news or watching TV this August, one could easily think it was Donald Trump, rather than Joe Biden, who won the presidency in November 2020.

Trump is everywhere. The biggest story in the country, the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago last week is only one facet of this seemingly-eternal Trump-centric news cycle. Political reporters are back to writing about Trump statements and “truths” from Trump’s own social media network and writing about his travel schedule.

President Biden has had what is easily the most difficult presidency since Franklin Roosevelt’s first term, both only bested by the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, and right now History is saying “hold my beer” as to whether that record stands. Since taking office on January 20, 2021, in the wake of the first successful sacking of the United States capitol since 1814, an act carried out this time by “fellow Americans” rather than British regulars, he has moved from one crisis to the next.

And somehow, the accomplishments Biden has managed to notch, the successful meeting of each of the crises, have been largely overlooked or unrewarded by voters.

Inflation, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and an unending pandemic have all resulted in an approval rating that is down to record lows.

And that’s not counting the ranks of the “disappointed” Dim-ocrats who fault the president for not giving them the ponies and rainbows they thought their vote would get them, who think Joe Biden ought to run up the white flag of surrender and declare himself a one-term president now so “someone better” can run in 2024.

What flabbergasts me is that the Actual News is 180-degrees out from this horse shit.

Over the past few weeks, the news is Democratic victory after Democratic victory. Republicans in disarray, outmaneuvered by Chuck Shumer and Joe Manchin. As much real actual progress with a 50-50 Senate that includes two on “our side” who can’t be depended on regularly, as LBJ had in 1964-66 passing the Great Society with a huge Democratic majority in both houses and a Republican Party that wasn’t committed to voting “No” on every thing.

Biden and the congressional Democrats have hit their stride. They passed into law three major pieces of legislation, most importantly the long-debated health, climate and tax bill, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, which also includes long-sought drug pricing reforms for Medicare and the biggest-ever investment in climate change.

The challenge now is for President Biden to take those wins and turn them into a pivot point for his presidency.

Last night, Pramilla Jayapal laid out the campaign: Do you want more of this? Give us two Democratic Senators and keep the House, and everything the American public says they support is sitting there with the bills already written, waiting for the opportunity of passage.

Elect two Democratic Senators, keep the House, and “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Do that and nobody will be complaining about Joe Biden running for re-election, and if Trump still decides to run after getting his ass whipped in 2022, he’ll lose in 2024.

Those are the stakes.

And yes, this has all been the work of the guy the idiots and morons say is “too old,” that he’s “sleepy Joe.” Allow me to say as someone a few years younger than the President, who is in the middle of the most successful period of my career in my life, that Age Counts. I know how to do what I do, and I learned enough from my mistakes that any future mistakes will not be re-runs of old mistakes. Age Matters. Knowledge comes with Age.

Joe Biden has more experience of getting things done in the American legislative system than almost all other Democrats combined. I can’t think of any potential alternative to him who I think could have done what he has done in the past 18 months in the political climate we have to work in. I voted for Gavin Newsom three times (twice for governor, once against recall) and I think he’s a very good governor, and I could see voting for him for president in 2028; but I don’t see him having the knowledge or the skill set to have been able to work with Shumer and Pelosi and figured out ways to get all this done with the political resources available the way Joe Biden has.

The White House seems to be listening to the women who Know These Things, with a campaign developed by Senior Adviser Anita Dunn and Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon. It will be an “aggressive effort” to promote Biden’s accomplishments and draw a contrast with Republicans.

At the very least, Democrats now have a viable message heading into the election. It may not be enough to hold onto the House, but it is not time to make predictions, when every new poll shows the Republican advantage diminishing and the Democratic position growing stronger. Democratic Senate candidates in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New Hampshire are looking good at the moment. Ohio and Wisconsin are also in play, and possibly even North Carolina.

That 52-D Senate and House majority are doable. The ponies and rainbows await delivery next year.

But only if we work as hard as the guy who’s “too old” is going to be working the next eight weeks.

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