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Do you approve of Biden and/or Harris's job performance?
Started a new thread just to have a poll, though there are plenty of politics threads already.
I'm a bit perplexed by how this administration is shaking out so far, and how we're reacting. The president is the single most powerful person on earth, and you'd expect him (theoretically her) to be a dynamic figure. But it seems to me that Biden was selected specifically because he's the boring option; after four years of Trump, we wanted a non-controversial known quantity to get him out for sure. And that seems to have won voters over; while I wanted Amash to win, and I voted for Jorgensen even though she's ridiculous, "not Donald Trump" is acceptable in the same way I walked out of theaters sorta-satisfied with Episode 7. Sure, it was uninspired recycled crap, but it wasn't aggressively bad like the prequels, which made it a relief. I wanted Biden to be an Episode 7 presidency. Show up, make some speeches nobody will remember, make some minor gaffes that only Fox News will give a damn about, blather about problems nobody ever solved like healthcare, and don't solve them while giving a credible impression that you sort of tried. Most of all, no more culture war crap, I'm tired. I'm biased, but I think that's why he won. He couldn't act like Trump with a gun to his head, and the nation was ready for a boring-ass president.
But he didn't do that. He's trying to be transformative and enact a big sweeping agenda ... with half the senate on his side on a good day. He wants pretty much the whole democratic wishlist, including stuff that no Republican would ever get behind and which he knows full well will give Joe Manchin the heebie-jeebies. Afghanistan was never going to look good, and it's to his credit that he pulled out even if one feels he could have executed it more smoothly. COVID isn't really soluble, politically, and he was always going to be the whipping boy for that. And inflation is only partly his fault (on a related note, I am totally cured of my interest in UBI). The part where he thinks he has a mandate to actually govern as a strong progressive? That's baffling, and it's all on him. It doesn't seem like he needs to please the left wing, now that Trump is suggesting he'll try to come back; ain't nobody gonna primary Joe while the Donald is rattling the White House doorknobs. My best guess is that he really wants this stuff?
Kamala, paradoxically, seems to be getting a lot of criticism for doing her job poorly, which is even more weird since she barely has a job even with a deadlocked senate to break ties in. Only one veep in my lifetime really played a prominent role in his administration, and it was terrible. Kamala, AFAICT, is being addled and uninspiring, which is what we backed her boss for, and is pretty close to her current job's description. Is it because Biden is more likely than previous presidents to die, because Kamala was never a popular candidate, or because she's a black woman? Beats me.
I'm a bit perplexed by how this administration is shaking out so far, and how we're reacting. The president is the single most powerful person on earth, and you'd expect him (theoretically her) to be a dynamic figure. But it seems to me that Biden was selected specifically because he's the boring option; after four years of Trump, we wanted a non-controversial known quantity to get him out for sure. And that seems to have won voters over; while I wanted Amash to win, and I voted for Jorgensen even though she's ridiculous, "not Donald Trump" is acceptable in the same way I walked out of theaters sorta-satisfied with Episode 7. Sure, it was uninspired recycled crap, but it wasn't aggressively bad like the prequels, which made it a relief. I wanted Biden to be an Episode 7 presidency. Show up, make some speeches nobody will remember, make some minor gaffes that only Fox News will give a damn about, blather about problems nobody ever solved like healthcare, and don't solve them while giving a credible impression that you sort of tried. Most of all, no more culture war crap, I'm tired. I'm biased, but I think that's why he won. He couldn't act like Trump with a gun to his head, and the nation was ready for a boring-ass president.
But he didn't do that. He's trying to be transformative and enact a big sweeping agenda ... with half the senate on his side on a good day. He wants pretty much the whole democratic wishlist, including stuff that no Republican would ever get behind and which he knows full well will give Joe Manchin the heebie-jeebies. Afghanistan was never going to look good, and it's to his credit that he pulled out even if one feels he could have executed it more smoothly. COVID isn't really soluble, politically, and he was always going to be the whipping boy for that. And inflation is only partly his fault (on a related note, I am totally cured of my interest in UBI). The part where he thinks he has a mandate to actually govern as a strong progressive? That's baffling, and it's all on him. It doesn't seem like he needs to please the left wing, now that Trump is suggesting he'll try to come back; ain't nobody gonna primary Joe while the Donald is rattling the White House doorknobs. My best guess is that he really wants this stuff?
Kamala, paradoxically, seems to be getting a lot of criticism for doing her job poorly, which is even more weird since she barely has a job even with a deadlocked senate to break ties in. Only one veep in my lifetime really played a prominent role in his administration, and it was terrible. Kamala, AFAICT, is being addled and uninspiring, which is what we backed her boss for, and is pretty close to her current job's description. Is it because Biden is more likely than previous presidents to die, because Kamala was never a popular candidate, or because she's a black woman? Beats me.
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