'We Have Been Very Lucky To Have A Pro With Half Century Experience'
Biden wins strong marks nearly six months in office
President Biden's performance in his early months in office has won some strong reviews from a pair of experts: one of the nation's foremost presidential historians, and one of Biden's own predecessors.
Biden's had a strong beginning to his presidency, signing a flurry of executive orders on his first day in the Oval Office, whilst also pushing through a massive American Rescue Plan COVID relief package.
He's also on the verge of gaining approval for a scaled-back bipartisan, $1.2 trillion version of his American Jobs Plan infrastructure initiative.
However, much of the rest of his legislative agenda remains bottled up in a narrowly divided Senate, where Republicans are eager to filibuster his plans wherever and whenever they can.
“But I think that in general, Joe Biden has done very well,” said Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, who served in the White House from 1977-1981 before losing reelection to Republican Ronald Reagan.
Historian Michael Beschloss, the author of nine books on the presidency who has frequently been read by American presidents themselves, was even more effusive in his praise.
“Well, I think that we have been very lucky to have a pro with the half century experience in national politics. Because there have been very few mistakes over the last six months, especially in the thing that you were talking about just a moment ago, which is, you know, he would be very tempted to say, ‘Yes, the economy is wonderful,’ as he said yesterday, ‘Pandemic is better,’ which he did say, but another, less-seasoned political leader might say, ‘Everything is great, you know, everyone relax.’ The tough thing for a leader is to do both of those things because he knows if there is a downturn in the economy and that can always happen, terrible inflation might happen.
“You might have a variant that makes this to look less bright than it does on the 5th of July of 2021 then next year he's got to run a mid-term election, which every Republican commercial will put those words up saying he was too optimistic, he let down our guard almost like George W. Bush with ‘Mission Accomplished,’” Beschloss added, referring to a banner hung on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier signalling what would be a premature sign of success in the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.