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What Joe Biden has done: Year One (all credit to u/backpackwayne) Highlights from Year One • ⁠Reversed Trump's Muslim ban • ⁠Historic Stimulus Bill passed • ⁠Ended the war in Afghanistan (Set in place by Trump*) • ⁠Reduction of poverty levels by 45% along with reduction of child poverty levels by 61% by the first 6 months • ⁠5 Rounds of cancellation of student loan debt totaling almost $10 billion • ⁠Passed largest infrastructure bill in history • ⁠The unemployment rate dropped from 6.2% when Biden took office to 3.9%, the biggest single year drop in American history. (This was also affected by COVID quarantine ending.) Year Two Highlights from Year Two • ⁠The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 • ⁠3 Additional rounds of student loan debt cancellation (8 rounds so far), totaling up $35 billion for 20-40 million Americans • ⁠First major gun legislation in 30 years • ⁠CHIPS Act to protect American supply of semi-conductor chips • ⁠$62 billion worth of health care subsidies under the ACA (Obamacare), capping insulin at $35 • ⁠Allows Medicare to negotiate 100 drugs over the next decade, and requires drug companies to rebate price increases higher than inflation • ⁠Unemployment at 50 year low Year Three Highlights from Year Three • ⁠Got republicans to publicly take Social Security and Medicare cuts off the table by tricking them during the State of the Union • ⁠6 More rounds of student loan debt cancellation (14 rounds so far), totaling up to $127 billion • ⁠As of October 2023, 34 straight months of job growth, longest stretch of unemployment below 4% since the 1960s • ⁠Child poverty rates fall from 12.6% to 5.8% due to Biden's Expanded Child Tax Credits, 2.9 million kids escape poverty • ⁠World's best post-pandemic recovery, doubles all nations except Japan • ⁠Created 14 million jobs since he took office - More than any president in history did in four years (and its only been 3 years) • ⁠Black unemployment rate lower under Biden than any other administration (4.7%) - Compared to black unemployment under Trump was 2nd worst number in history, reaching over 16% • ⁠Diversity in justice: Majority of Biden’s appointed judges are women, racial or ethnic minorities – a first for any president • ⁠Rail companies grant paid sick days after administration pressure in win for unions. Most people will only remember that he forced rail workers to go back to work in December 2022, even now that will be the top answer if you google "Biden Railworker Deal". But most people do not know that the Biden administration continued to pressure the rail corporations and work with the unions so that in June 2023, the corporations capitulated and gave the rail workers what they wanted. Biden knows how to work politics and knows that the real work isn't done with the cameras on you for a soundbite, but in the background where people can debate without a fickle public watching every move. Year Four (so far) Highlights from Year Four • Another round of student loan cancellation, $1.2 billion this time, 15 rounds so far, totaling more than $128 billion • Growth shatters expectations: GDP expands 3.1% - a year beginning with heavy odds of a recession • ⁠Post-pandemic recover still leading the world by far • ⁠Plan to modernize American ports • ⁠Rescinds Trump-era "Denial of Care" rule that allowed health care workers to deny medical care to patients because of their personal religious or moral belief • ⁠Violent crime drop significantly since 2020 • ⁠$5.8 billion to clean up nation’s drinking water and upgrade infrastructure Edit: formatting

Forgot to mention that Biden has been selling oil from the Strategic Reserve to drive down prices. After the Saudis drove up prices to help their buddy Putin finance his war in Ukraine, the US started selling its reserves. This forced American gas prices back down from $5 to around $3.50. The US sold its reserves when the price per barrel was around $100 and has been buying oil to refill the reserves at the current price of $80, a pretty steep profit. People complain that Biden is using the reserves to manipulate the price of oil for political gains, but... I dunno, man... fuck those people. Do you like winning, or not?

The average person doesn't really understand how oil prices (or most commodities for that matter) really work.

Wow, great encapsulation, for sure! He has exceeded my expectations for sure!!

Biden is genuinely the most successful and productive president in living memory. He may not have Obama’s overwhelming charisma and vigor, but he beats him policy wise hands down. And all while dealing with a historically partisan congress.   Too bad the post-COVID inflation and “economy vibescession” plus his age is making all these wins lost in the wind. Edit: dropped the bi

I am genuinely astounded by people who are underwhelmed by Biden. I have never known a president, or any politician really, to deliver on **all** the tentpoles of their campaign. His campaign was the Build Back Better plan, three bills focused on covid relief, infrastructure, and family policies. And he passed all of them. Anyone of them would have been considered a huge victory, and he passed them all. Some of the widest-reaching, expansive progressive policy in decades delivered in spades. Why dems of all stripes aren't fawning over him, I have no idea. 

We had 4 years of a guy that was in the news, good or bad (mostly bad), every single day. We knew EVERYTHING he did. If we knew any more, we would have had a website devoted to his bowel movements. We had drama, entertainment, rage, some had happiness, etc. Then, Biden took over.... And we still hear about the last guy every day, but Biden is rarely big news. People are underwhelmed, because he isn't entertaining them.

"People are underwhelmed, because he isn't entertaining them" I do NOT want an "entertaining " president. A president should not be the top news story every God damn day. Not even going into policy, Trump was fucking exhausting. Multiple times a day there would be breaking news because of something Trump did, said, or posted on social media. The vast majority of it was BS, stupidity and noise. Biden taking office was a relief. No more stupid tweets making headlines. Biden was, and still is, a calming influence, a traditional president who has also been very, very effective.

I wasn't saying I want that, but people got used to it. Now that the media isn't feeding them everything he says, or does, the presidency bores them. But they are still, continuously, covering their click bait golden boy, Trump... Every single day.

I realize that you weren't saying it was a good thing, which I should have made clear. I agree with you as well that Trump news and propaganda still sucks all the wind out of Biden's sails. That's a media problem that I don't see doing away, unfortunately.

Agreed. I can't wait until the day he isn't in the news every damn day.

Sadly, many people want entertainment in politics. The media makes no money if positive, mundane things are happening. They feed on division, drama, and spectacle. 

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—*and then it was not so funny or entertaining*… (Original last line of this quote =“and there was no one left to speak out for me…”)

> I do NOT want an "entertaining " president Nor do I, but unfortunately too many Americans do. But it's a little harsher than that. People can't seem to tell the difference between a scandal and policy actions. "Not being in the news enough" gets treated as "not doing anything newsworthy". People think presidents should be newsworthy, and they're right. But that would require the news to be publishing things other than just drama.

Oh my goodness, you nailed it!! I want BORING! Boring does NOT mean you aren’t doing anything, quite the opposite in Biden’s case, and most of all, it means that the American public is not having to experience horrific bullshit at the hands of the MNSCF (malignant narcissistic sociopath/convicted felon)…

There was, at one point, a Trump Dump tracker website that tracked his bowel movements based on when he would post insane rants to Twitter.

He did not pass all of BBB. That is not to detract from what pieces he did accomplish, but some of the most impactful pieces of that legislation such as capping childcare costs did not make it to law.

We can thank the outdated filibuster for that and why several other legislations for middle class Americans didn't become law.

Filibuster needs to go back to being a talking filibuster. If you want to block legislation you need to be willing to spend your own time to do it.

It just needs to be gotten rid of.

Yeah and with the GOP being the bad actors that they are at this point, nothing will get done because the GOP WILL take as many laws off the books as possible and the Dems have to spend valuable political currency to reverse them.

Only thing that kinda irks me about him is that he has done *nothing* on police reform, and he sort of ran on that in 2020.

I'm also really sad on his anti immigration and protectionist stances. Regardless, its been more good than bad imo.

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It invalidates a lot of the complaints republicans have about him. They won’t listen to reason but if they understood what was actually happening they wouldn’t have much to complain about. That isn’t much comfort though. If they understood what was actually happening they would also know that trump is completely awful.

Not much to do at the federal level in the executive branch. Police is very much a local government question.

You mean historically partisan congress.

I adore Obama as a human being, but he was far less effective than Biden.  His biggest flaw was that he believed the gop long after he shouldn't have 

I have a slightly different take; the difference between Obama and Biden isn't trust/naivete, it's the fact that Biden loves dealing with all people, even the biggest pieces of shit in Congress, and he schmoozes and smooth talks and gets shit done behind closed doors even with people that call him the living incarnation of Marx except mentally infirm and head of a crime family to boot. Meanwhile, Obama fucking hated the GOP that shit talked him with racist dog whistles and bullhorns and didn't want to deal with them at all, which is entirely understandable, but the end result is that Biden got more done with far less power in Congress and the courts than Obama ever did or could.

What are things Biden got done just because he talked to GOP senators and reps that hate his guts?

It was a definitely a bit of a personality (& demographic) thing for Biden to be more effective at getting in the GOP’s ear, but it’s also just a matter of history. Biden had been in the Senate for decades, and had enjoyed great working relationships across the aisle for decades, prominent examples include: Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Lyndsey Graham, and plenty more. Obama ran for the presidency before he even completed his 1st term in the (US) Senate. He had no time to cultivate relationships with anyone in the GOP, and wasn’t necessarily a super active, bipartisan leader in herding cats to pass bills, anyways. Biden had been doing that for 30 years by the time Obama declared his run in ‘08.

I guess what I'm trying to ask is if there's any qualitative proof on specific bills that has certain GOP senators or congresspeople singing onboard to it arguably due to Biden's ability to "talk across the isle". I've seen him whip Manchin into place, and that's about it.

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All the bills he passed; look at the top post of this thread for a comprehensive list. And it's not just the GOP he had to talk to, importantly he had to get both Manchin and Sinema on board with everything.

Obama lacked the experience that Biden has. It made him ineffective when dealing with Congress. Biden’s decades of experience in Congress allowed him to negotiate with the other side. Obama would have done much better as President had he waited to run in order to gain more experience in negotiating in Congress.

The Democratic party changed - it was more conservative in 2009 and much more dedicated to being bipartisan. The Senate had like...10 Manchins in it. The Democratic party as a whole was much more gung-ho on a large stimulus measure in 2021 than they were in 2009, even though 2009 had worse unemployments and a tougher recession. And more gung-ho on a larger infrastructure bill too! Obama was a pretty good negotiator, but the issues were more structural.

Remember: During Obama's term, they knew the need was for more infusion into the nations many concerns, but they also faced a Republican group who fought against everything, Remember, Romney wanted to let GM fail. But, because of Obama's actions GM came back stronger than it was before the crash. *Solyndra* tried to get a foot hold on Solar Energy, the Republican congress had already made deals that benefitted China and they and big oil did everything to stifle *Solyndra*, Obama even had a plan that compensated homeowners and companies who installed Solar, but Republican narratives fought it at every turn. Cash for Clunkers not only help the U.S. Auto Industry, it also helped the Environment by the older vehicles that were strong polluters get removed from the highways. It would take a lot of reading to look at the details of what Republicans did to damage Obama policies and programs. When it came to "see any doctor", Republicans sided with "private network medical" to not Join the ACA Exchange, they did not want to bring their cost in line with Medicare Rates, because Private Network Medical has excessively high rates for service, and cycle patient only within their private network. The public did not understand they were being fleeced and captured by private networks, who continue still to delay services and have very high rates for much needed care, that often is constrained in quality by the high cost that private insurers don't want to pay. Remember: Obama had Putin over a barrel, when Oil Production in the U.S. increased and then Natural Gas Production Increased dramatically, the Russian Ruble, nearly crashed..... ^((That's when Russian Oligarch's put money into the money washing game trying to preserve some value by currency conversion into other country currencies, I think that what led Trump to claim he'd finance his own campaign, because was counting on that Russian money)). Remember: HAMP, it forced the mortgage companies to convert peoples homes to fixed rate loans and some to as low as 2% and removed the second which many lenders had duped people into taking. It saved millions of people's homes. Then the companies that pushed the variable rate had to refund money back to homeowners who were steered into these variable rate loans. Republicans did not want this publicized so they promoted a narrative as if black people were the problem, when fact is the dominant group that bought more expensive homes than their income justified were white borrowers, but many were allowed to file Chapter 7, where black and brown people were steered to Chapter 13. Many white borrowers were able to recover in less than 7 years after filing bankruptcy, where as black and brown people saw the bankruptcy carried for more than a decade which prevented them from rebuilding through access to credit. We could not list everything that happened in a forum, but there are people in various ways of publication who did chronicle a great deal of what happened.

Remember, Republicans made a public pledge to block "anything and everything" Obama put on the table. It was pure obstructionist madness, with major dereliction of their sworn duty to serve the nation, *not the party and themselves*.

Yes and no. Obama faced these same maga trolls but didn't see them for what they were. None of us did. Biden had the luxury of knowing that they took off their masks and revealed their desire for a white nationalist religious ethno-state and was able to respond more easily.

What Obama had was more of the Tea Party, the proto-maga movement if you will, before Trump named it and ran with it.

Remember, Obama knew. *"They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."*

Mostly because he triggered the inherent racism at the heart of Republicanism, creating almost insane levels of opposition.

He was a senator for a VERYYYYYY long time so he knows what to do and how to surround himself with insanely qualified staff

If it wasn't for Republican propaganda and Reagan undoing policies, Carter was a very successful President. The only time in US history we didn't have a war. The Camp David accords. Made all of the correct movies to deal with stagflation, which Reagan took credit for. Did more for climate change than any President, again his policies fell to Reagan. Not to mention congress didn't like him because he called them out all the time.

I agree. It makes me wonder how much better the US would have been under President Carter. Reagan's deregulation of banks and adding fuel to the culture wars have generated some of the worst situations of end of the 20th and early 21st century. Edited: added end of to 20th century and early to 21st century. I did not want to imply that Reagan was responsible for things that happened before his presidency.

And Reagan was also just another darling "people had seen on TV".

Just imagine how great our country would be of we put our interstate system on the outside of cities, rather than knocking down all the black middle class neighborhoods and successful black business districts. Eta... downvotes? Do people think this didn't happen, or are y'all just racist? 

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/final-presidential-job-approval-ratings His approval rating was in the tank at the end of his presidency which is why Reagan crushed him at the ballot box. His personal PR took hits for the Rose Garden policy, the failed rescue attempt, the sinning in his heart comment and the fire side chat about saving energy. Comedians were savaging him on TV.

Being popular and being good for the country are two different things. The Trump Biden situation shows that better than anything.

Smart and effective people are often despised.

The “vibescession” is a right wing misinformation campaign trying to convince everyone that things are somehow worse now than during trumps godawful presidency

A lot of things are better but housing costs, a big one, is way worse and doesn’t seem to be improving. That’s most people’s largest expense

historically partisan*

Wish this wasn't just niche hyper online knowledge. I'm literally such an insane weirdo irl for thinking Biden is good actually.

Year two: He saved pretty much the entire union pension system.

Also the push to reschedule marijuana.

Pushing to reschedule marijuana is an activity, it's not an accomplishment until it's actually done

He said he would legalize medical and did not

Yeah I was confused by the slow process too, but I guess drug reclassification is a multi-stage process. Last I heard, things were progressing on pace. From perplexity: The process to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug involves several steps and has been lengthy due to various regulatory and political hurdles. ### Steps Taken: 1. **Presidential Initiative**: President Joe Biden initiated the rescheduling process in October 2022, urging a review of marijuana's classification[1][5]. 2. **HHS Recommendation**: In August 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended reclassifying marijuana to Schedule III[1]. 3. **DOJ Proposal**: On May 16, 2024, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced plans to publish a proposed rule to reclassify marijuana[1][2]. 4. **DEA Action**: The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a proposed rule on May 16, 2024, to reclassify marijuana, initiating a 60-day public comment period[3][4]. ### Remaining Steps: 1. **Public Comment Period**: The DEA will collect and review public comments over 60 days[3][4]. 2. **Administrative Review**: An administrative judge will review the comments and the proposal[4]. 3. **Final Rule Publication**: The DEA will publish the final rule after considering all feedback and completing the review process[3][4]. ### Reasons for Delay: - **Regulatory Complexity**: The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) imposes strict criteria for rescheduling drugs, requiring extensive scientific and medical evaluation[3][4]. - **Political and Legal Challenges**: Previous attempts to reschedule marijuana faced opposition due to international treaty obligations and legal precedents[5]. - **Evolving Public and Political Opinion**: Shifts in public opinion and political support have gradually built momentum for reclassification, but this has taken time to align with regulatory processes[5]. Citations: [1] https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/16/doj-marijuana-reclassification-today-00158378 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDWWZ1zGNwg [3] https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2024/05/us-drug-enforcement-administration-proposes-reclassification [4] https://fox59.com/news/national-world/marijuana-may-soon-be-a-schedule-iii-drug-what-will-change/ [5] https://apnews.com/article/marijuana-biden-dea-criminal-justice-pot-f833a8dae6ceb31a8658a5d65832a3b8

Yeah but he's old/s

Year two: He saved pretty much the entire union pension system.

This has some bias. If you are going to highlight childhood poverty in the first six months. You need to also mention record increase in child poverty the following year. (The poverty rate for children more than doubled from a historic low of 5.2 percent in 2021 to 12.4 percent in 2022) Worth mentioning inflation reduction act did little to nothing to reduce inflation according to experts. Student loan forgiveness was based on Bush era legislation. Rail was union busting pressure by Biden. Caping insulin for Medicare users only.

> (The poverty rate for children more than doubled from a historic low of 5.2 percent in 2021 to 12.4 percent in 2022) Because Republicans blocked all attempts to extend the child tax credit, which was the main driver of the previous child poverty rate decrease. Once again, Republicans sabotaged an objective good for the nation.

You can thank our Republican friends for stripping out insulin price caps for everyone but Medicare users. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-block-cap-insulin-costs-many-americans-democratic-deal-rcna41913

Biden has been one of the most effective Presidents who has been severely undercredited for his accomplishments.

Why is debt cancellations such a big plus in everyone's mind? Honestly asking. How does it benefit the country? Aren't we just teaching people, young ones especially, that there is no personal accountability for their, often time, irresponsible borrowing? Instead how about regulating the colleges and their absurd tuition prices. This is coming from someone with 60k in student loan debt. It's MY debt, it doesn't belong to the rest of you, the tax payers. It seems you only listed the positives. Seems like your bias is getting in the way of seeing all the negatives too. You can't just cherry pick the "good things". For the record, before making assumptions, I'm an independent who votes all over the political spectrum.

It also dodges the main issue of why tuition is so high

Honestly, is it possible to produce a list like this for Trump? Or is this objectively Biden being GOATED?

Agreed that he has been very successful in many aspects. But why is he consistently behind in polling in the 6 swing states and can he fix it?

1. Because the right are a propaganda firehose and the left are weak at messaging. 2. Because a lot of businesses used the pandemic as an excuse to Jack prices WAY up, so most Americans feel crushed by the increase in cost of living. Biden has nothing to do with this. It’s just capitalism run amok. Common greed.

His communication strategy is bad, partly because of the social media landscape, and Biden’s moderate stance on most issues. Biden rarely takes a controversial position and defend it (aside from student loans). Instead Biden usually takes the moderate positions and got attacked from both sides, with social media amplifying the extremes.

His communication strategy isn't bad, it just has had a different objective. People naturally assume that all politicians' communication strategies are 100% about winning elections. But Biden's communication strategy has been about passing bills and getting shit done. And in that, it has succeeded magnificently. Better than any president since LBJ or perhaps FDR. If Biden had pursued Trump's communication strategy *maybe* he'd be polling 1-2 points ahead instead of 1-2 points behind. Maybe. But he wouldn't have passed half the shit he has, maybe not any of it, because it's very unlikely that Biden play-acting at leftist Trump would have gotten Sinema and Manchin on board with anything. Biden's thesis has been that if he does his job as president, voters will eventually notice their lives getting better and entrust him with another 4 years to keep on improving their lives. His job as president isn't to entertain them or enrage them or tweet at them 32 times a day while accomplishing nothing. His job as president is get shit done, and in the current hyper partisan environment, the best and only way to get shit done is to do it quietly. So that's what he's done. Now it's up to the voters to decide if they like an entertaining loudmouth who gets nothing done (which cost an estimated 400,000 additional lives lost to COVID by the way - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/10/us-coronavirus-response-donald-trump-health-policy ) or a quietly competent man who gets tons of shit done behind the scenes and refrains from bragging about it so that he can continue to get shit done. Either way, Americans are going to get the president they deserve, and they're going to deserve what they get.

>Instead Biden usually takes the moderate positions and got attacked from both sides, with social media amplifying the extremes. Which is what I love about him the most.

And literally why we are talking about him passing historic amounts of legislation, especially under a Republican led House that took like 7(?) rounds of voting to decide on a leader.

Because of the constant messaging that everything is worse than it was 5 years ago, despite that being demonstrably untrue.

On the very first day, Biden got us back into the Paris Accord, which trump withdrew us from, because "climate change isn't real" Rescinded Trump's order to take away children from their parents at the border, and shipping them off to empty warehouses, Wal-Marts, etc. and then losing them in the foster system There are over 2000 children that were stolen and never returned to their parents, all instigated by trump. Trump administration says they have no idea where the children are as they didn't keep the paperwork. Sanctioned Russia and held them accountable for election interference Reopens the ACA enrollment period to Feb. thru May, rescinding trumps policy that cut enrollment period down to 60 days Rescinds Mexico city policy Elevates climate change as an essential element to foreign policy Reestablishes the President's council on Science and Technology that trump blew apart Reverses trump order banning transgenders from serving in military Raised the minimum wage for all Federal workers Rescinds DeVos policy that gave rapists more protection on campus, placing more burden on victims. Title IX Stops the withdrawal of America from the WHO Cancels the Keystone Pipeline (horrible trump policy) Rescinded Trump's 1776 commission. SO much more, he is a busy, working President, working to make our country better and couldn't have done 1/4 of what he has done if he was "mentally declining"

Spending to keep unemployment down and consumption up got us over the pandemic slump way more quickly than in peer nations and way more quickly than after the last recession Dinguses will complain about the inflation but there was no free lunch to be had here and that was way better than what we would have experienced with a less generous response He also deserves a lot of credit for being staunchly pro labor and for the transformational climate impact of the IRA Main weakness has been excessive tolerance for Israeli wrongdoing and insufficient and late support for Ukraine in their self defense

It wasn’t Biden with the late support of Ukraine- it was Congress!

>Dinguses will complain about the inflation but there was no free lunch to be had here and that was way better than what we would have experienced with a less generous response Then you have the supply chain issue which really didn't help, which apparently was also from Trump shutting down ports due to covid. I'm not sure about that one, I assume he was following DOH guidelines.

Yeah, there was also plenty of inflation in other countries with a less generous response. They just haven’t had the strike wage and job growth that we’ve had that has more than compensated

We can’t forget about the [Evergiven](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ever_Given) container ship that backed up the Suez Canal exasperating the backlog at ports and the already struggling supply chain.

Oh yeah I forgot about that too,that was a bit of a thing as well

People like me think he has hit exactly the right note in regards to Israel. He has continually pressed for caution and restraint while also supporting our ally. Strong disagree that either Ukraine or Israel are a weak point for him.

Israel is no ally.

Netanyahu is certainly not an ally.

The problem goes well beyond him and if anything his personal problems have only masked how strong the Israeli right is The opposition includes a large number of what is essentially the Israeli equivalent of anti Trump conservatives, including some who are arguably even more right wing than Netanyahu is who sit with the opposition either out of personal resentment of his dishonest and criminal conduct, or secular racists in opposition due to his alliance with religious fundamentalist parties

??? 1) Only democracy in the Middle East (shared liberal/"Western" values) 2) Incredibly important military alliance 3) Counter-terrorism / Intelligence-sharing 4) Huge tech exporter to the US Maybe you don't like Netanyahu's administration, but Israel is an incredibly important ally.

It's a democracy that picks who its voters are. The South Africa of the 1970s and 80s was also a democracy that held competitive elections, except the electorate was hand-picked by those in power. Israel has controlled the West Bank and Gaza since 1968 but won't make those areas a full part of Israel because it would flip the political dynamics there. They want the land, they don't want the people.

Yeah, when someone says Israel is the "only democracy in the Middle East" it's not like that means they're some utopian society. The United States was a democracy when we had slavery and Jim Crow. Israel is a democracy that has apartheid and is still actively colonizing land that doesn't belong to them with the force of their military. Just saying "democracy" doesn't absolve them of the bad shit they do. The US just refuses to discipline them for it because we want to maintain our military presence and get them to make us a bunch of spy stuff.

>Israel is a democracy that has apartheid 22% of Israel are Arabs and they're thriving under the same protections as everyone else. It's telling that there was virtually no support for the 10/7 attacks from this population. Feel free to criticize Israel for the terrible policies they have (particularly the Netanyahu administration), but it's not apartheid.

Multiple international rights organizations have dived into what Israel's treatment of Palestinians, how it exerts it's control over the Strip and the West Bank, how it gives Jewish people preferential treatment, etc reach the threshold of apartheid. I know, I know, anything critical of Israel is anti-Semitism, those organizations are Hamas, I get it.

Certainly not since Netanyahu.

How do we balance restraining Israel with our dependence upon them to serve as a kind of front line against Iran?

As long as I feel that he will put the country before himself, I will vote for him.

Something else I've noticed that's starkly different about Joe Biden and Donald Trump -- watch how the people around them behave and respond to their company. One camp looks decidedly happier the majority of the time compared to the valley of the dolls MAGA feeder chain of interns and GOP insiders who look like they just showed up for the public hanging and need to dart out quickly.

That is a beautiful sentiment. It should become a campaign slogan.

I think Biden is the "most effective" president on domestic affairs we've had since the 1960s/70s. Since Nixon at least, maybe LBJ. Foriegn policy he's alright. Above average imo, although not awesome. There was no way to win the Afghan withdrawal. That war was fucked by G.W. Bush and a failed surge by Obama. Afghanistan is an unstable shithole country. Where Biden failed was letting it look bad. Probably should have surged troops by 15k or so to do the withdrawal. Even though it would have been unpopular at the time, would have saved the terrible optics. But he will be praised in the long term for having the courage to actually leave. Biden is one of the worst for PR and branding over the same period. The successful ones - Reagan, Clinton, W. Bush, Obama, Trump all had a "brand." Trump has perfected it. Biden doesn't really have "fans." He really sucks at deflecting and distracting. Again, Trump was the master of this. Biden may well lose re-election because of it.

Since the day of the Afghanistan withdrawal, I've believed the same thing -- bad look short term, but good move long term

First poster is right that it could have been a good look in the short term too though; surge in another couple divisions, send the Taliban packing back to Pakistan, most importantly: fast track visas and get all the translators and other key US allies in Afghanistan out of there, then leave.

That would not have worked.

They really just needed Kabul to hang on for another couple of weeks and it would have looked way better. But, ironically, that also would have meant getting way less people out.

American rescue plan, infrastructure bill, inflation reduction act, postal service reform, gun control legislation, chips act, pact act, and respect for marriage act to name a few. Legislatively, he's been the most effective president in decades. Many of these were bipartisan. It is shocking how much was passed given the tiny majority they had the first two years.

No one I know who doesn't follow politics very closely knows about any of these accomplishments. It's sad.

Best President in at least the last 50 years, and I say that as a person who was no fan of Biden as senator - he’s the only one during that time who hasn’t actively worked to steal from the 99% to give to the 1%. To the contrary, he’s done way more to help non-wealthy Americans than I thought would be possible given Congressional Republicans and MAGAs. His ability to build a coalition around helping Ukraine has been really impressive. And he’s started to shift the conversation around our decades of enabling Israel to cause great mischief - this requires enormous political coverage because of AIPAC. As a Jewish person, I am hugely in favor of Israel’s existence, but not in their cruel treatment of Palestinians.

I was not expecting this sort of response and it’s giving me a lot to look into. I find him to be one of the most moral/ethical/kind presidents of my lifetime but have generally regarded him in the same intellectual boat as George W. But, I think both of them did a great job of filing their cabinet with strong leadership and they both took advice from others. For me, being able to acknowledge that others are better than you in certain areas and knowing how to make good decisions based on new information is one of the most important characteristics for POTUS. I cannot think of anything egregiously wrong with the past four years under Biden. I don’t think we’ve been able to make much progress because of the state of the nation and I truly hope that changes this year. I have some questions about our international relations in regard to Ukraine and Gaza but again, I think his message has been one formed in line with what it means to be a leader of the country and to make the U.S. a world leader. Regardless, thanks for sharing your POV, I need to look into some of these things more! (For the record: Ive always voted person not party; however this cycle has to be different for me.)

AIPAC is not the reason why Israel has political support in America.

Their money makes it very difficult for politicians to criticize Israel.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/bidens-economic-policies-have-quietly-made-peoples-lives-better-and-no-one-seems-to-care/ar-AA1gQ9xo

I'm 47 years old. Biden has been the most productive 1st term president in my lifetime and it's not even close. You can easily argue he's behind only FDR as the most consequential first term President in the past 100 years. Unfortunately Americans have loudly declared they would rather die in a fire than pay slightly higher prices for hamburgers, so he probably won't win reelection and this is probably the high water mark for left-of-center policies in America. No president will ever again make maximum employment a policy goal, or consider broadly-targeted economic stimulus to mitigate or ward-off major economic downturns. Most of the policy goals of the left are now effectively dead in the water for a generation or more. And certainly no president or presidential candidate will ever even consider asking Americans to make the economic and convivence sacrifices necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change. +3C is now not only guaranteed to happen, but frankly it's probably a ludicrously optimistic best-case scenario. I believe historians will regard him as an excellent President whose long-term prospects were doomed by a major reactionary turn in the electorate, as part of a broader rightward shift across the Western world. One that is likely to become much much *much* worse as climate change triggers the largest mass migration in human history.

Right wing propaganda has created a nation of idiots and has done an excellent job of convincing the less intelligent into believing that Biden is cognitively impaired despite the fact that Biden has done an excellent job of repairing most of the damage caused by Trump's failed Presidency.

That might be, but what they see is higher mortgage rates, higher gas, higher groceries. Those are the things the "idiots" are paying attention to.

Remember one month after Biden came in and they blamed lumber prices and oil going up to 120 barrel on Biden? They said because of him shutting down a pipeline that was causing all the inflation. Then Biden sold a lot of the strategic oil supply over 100 bucks a barrel, It’s been sitting around 80 bucks for quite a while. The odd thing is that’s why Republicans said all the inflation went up was because of oil prices. I was paying 569 in Washington state. I paid 369 today. What’s up with the pipeline? Now what’s the excuse?

Ah yes, somehow Biden was to blame for gas prices after shutting down an oil pipeline carrying oil from Canada, across vulnerable water supplies and native land, down to Texas for it's less rigid pollution regulations so it can be exported to foreign countries. No one that was arguing that even knew what the pipeline was even for but it was going to make the Koch brothers billions of dollars so they flexed their lobbying and media muscles to spin that it directly tied to the price at the pump.

While ignoring Trump's OPEC deal to lower production in order to raise prices.

The recent rate of Inflation has generally been a global problem brought on by Covid. The US is probably faring better than anyone else in that regard too.

>The US is definitely faring better than anyone else in that regard too. Ftfy https://www.axios.com/2024/01/31/us-economy-2024-gdp-g7-nations Or https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/biden-us-economic-growth-becomes-envy-world-rcna157003 We are quite literally killing it.

That might be. But a lot of people vote with their wallets and right now they're either paying more for common goods or they percieve that they have less purchasing power.

And when they cast their vote this way, they'll be rejecting the best option, and replacing it with something worse, but because they don't understand, they'll feel like they "won" and in the end, that's all that level of person cares about. From that point, they'll blame all remaining issues on the other party, which is easy when understanding any of it is avoided at all costs.

This is correct and I don’t see how politically involved people don’t realize it. You can put 100 bullet points up about good things a president has done, but if someone is struggling with increasing rent, bills, and groceries they’re not really going to care about those other things.

Politically involved people do realize it. The problem is that political involved people also understand that things are improving and they will continue to improve with Biden in charge, and most of these problems, like groceries being more expensive, are down to corporate greed and not any of Biden's policies. But it doesn't matter to people who don't understand this, and they'd rather burn it all down because they *perceive* that things are worse and therefore Biden is bad and therefore we need to elect Trump, even though everything else will get worse. Just as long as I pay a little less in groceries. Politically involved people generally do realize why people aren't supporting Biden—it's just frustrating.

The housing crisis is independent of any president and requires a national mindset change where people stop treating housing as an investment. Higher gas prices were going to happen regardless of who the was president because of the current crises in Ukraine and the middle east. Ditto for grocery prices but we actually did very well because wage growth actually outpaced inflation, especially among the poorest workers. https://x.com/AlecStapp/status/1793429426438599083?t=J3NdWrO8lCVBRW9SZ3OHKA&s=19

> The housing crisis is independent of any president and requires a national mindset change where people stop treating housing as an investment. One of the issues where people look nationally when they need to be looking down at the state, county, and city level. This is why local politics matter. The President will not fix this for you, vote locally!

Yea, hopefully the Biden campaign will address that. The actual rate of inflation has gone way down under Biden, but of course the damage has already been done.

These things affect the whole Western world and some countries more than others. Obviously the ruling parties and presidents are not at fault here, but it’s easy to observe the fact that right wing and fascist propaganda in the US and Europe tries incredibly hard to blame the „evil elite“ currently ruling their respective country for higher gas and grocery prices while we had a devastating pandemic and got a massive land war going on in Eastern Europe. Many people unfortunately fall for this. How is kind of beyond me. Must be a deep misunderstanding or conscious decision to not understand how economy works.

It is striking how good Trump was at putting a thumb on the federal reserve. Jpow will probably lower interest rates in December and people will think that Trump made houses affordable again.

If rates go down, sale prices will skyrocket again.

But has Trump’s cult taken their blinders off or have the capacity to realize that COVID is to blame for the majority of those issues? Do they see that other world economies have done far worse than us? Have they noticed covid death rates dropped after Biden’s covid response and got the vaccines to the people?

I've made a killing in the stock market the past four years. Problem is the average folk is getting killed with inflation. He needs to tout stock market and real estate gains, but he can't. It's only serving those who got in early.

I agree with all that but disagree that maga folks are less intelligent although it is a fact that trump’s base skews less educated (as he said he loves the poorly educated! ) but I think one of the problems with the realigned Democratic Party to be more of a college educated party is that trump’s base (not the hardcore necessarily but the Trump curious / Trump sympathetic maybe feels looked down upon by the democrats and so they may root for trump a bit to get back at them. Long way of saying that I think one of the democrats’ problems is the Trump voters think democrats see them as less intelligent so maybe we should look at it differently

Lack of intelligence plays a huge part of it. Anyone that believes all the lies and bullshit that the right wing propaganda machine tells them is clearly easily fooled and lack critical thinking skills.

They've been duped. If that's 'looking down on them' then they're never gonna climb outta the hole they put themselves in.

> They've been duped Most haven't. Their bad faith rhetoric is in-group signalling. None of them actually believe that Hillary Clinton eats babies for instance.

This is true. I'd say that for a large number of the hardcore MAGA, almost all of their problems are self inflicted. They've done so little work on themselves, their attitudes are ones of utter bigotry and of entitlement that would make their most extreme caricature of a liberal blush with shame, and they're unwilling to take a moment of self reflection or even any genuine sympathy advice. Trump enables their persecution fantasy the life they deserve was stolen from them by liberals, immigrants, minorities, and the LGBTQ+, when the person truly robbing them is an orange con man and a party that has fully debased itself by following his every whim.

He has been able to do things that others only talked about but never made progress on. Infrastructure investments were talked about since Clinton but he actually got it through. The Inflation Reduction Act has many positive benefits for average Americans but one piece, Medicare being able to negotiate drug prices, was talked about since W at least, but no action until now. IRA also included caps on insulin and other common drugs. The CHIPS act is really bringing manufacturing investment back to much of the country where Trump tried and failed. Remember the big HVAC plant that never happened? That town is getting a chip factory now. There are many more as well including student loan forgiveness, and immigration reform that was done by executive action after having a historic compromise bipartisan bill that Trump had Johnson kill to stop Biden from have that accomplishment. This could still pass in the lame duck session after the election. Biden has not tried to take away any rights (no bills limiting gun ownership), but Trump's SCOTUS has taken women's right to choose when and if to have a baby (a right that Americans have had for 50 years). Trump was unsuccessful in even doing the things he wanted: no wall, no new healthcare plan, etc.

Yes. I remember 2020 very well, and today is comparatively and unequivocally better by nearly every critical measure (except interest rates which will go down) in the search for liberty, peace and prosperity in America.

I voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. I’m backing Biden in 2024. I live in Dallas and I cannot believe the fuckery republicans continue to do.

No, he is not fit to be president. He’s easily manipulated and influenced by other people who have average IQ, low intellect, and below average literacy skills. A good leader knows what’s good for his/her country and will take actions to protect and stand up for the U.S. citizens of this nation. Instead of helping illegal immigrants, why doesn’t he focus his attention on the homeless population and drug addicts in this country? Hello 👋 Mr. (Hopefully soon-to-be ex-president because the convicted felon is the better option), help our own people first, before you help others. Before you judge me, I’ll tell you guys this. I’m not a democrat or a republican. I vote for the person who I think will be the better candidate to run this country. Also, I’m an educated, Asian woman who LEGALLY immigrated to the U.S. and study hard to become a registered nurse. Saving my patients’ lives is my superpower 🦾🦸‍♀️✌️👩🏻‍⚕️.

no matter what anyone wants to bitch about (I hate high prices as much as anyone) we avoided true catastrophe post covid and are doing much better economically than peer countries. The infrastructre act and the IRA both contain sweeping programs and projects that will make America better. I have no doubt that this time next year Trump will be taking credit for a lot of it.

Here I'll take a stab.... Let me see... Signed bipartisan infrastructure bill to spend $550 billion through 2026 on updating critical infrastructure around the country. Passed the CHIPS act setting up 6.1 billion for factory and employment training at many levels for about 100,000 new jobs. Passed some degree of gun control regulation. Rescheduled marijuana Protected and expanded ACA and encouraged states to do the same with Medicaid via federal grants. Cut through swathes of student loans for people who have not been able to contribute to the economy because every extra dime has gone to the batshit insane student loan system. Issued executive order protecting women's reproductive rights. Passed the Inflation Reduction Act allowing Medicare to negotiate for pharmacy rates capped insulin for seniors at $35 a month. (It's hard to imagine a president caring about the elderly, last guy was throwing our grandparents to the unvaccinated wolfpack just so they could get their nails done. A record number of small businesses have been born in the past two years. It goes on...

He's been a great president, especially considering the circumstances he was put in. Unfortunately, he's not great at rooting his own horn, and Russian propaganda has seriously taken its toll.

The pluses have been things firmly in his control. The minuses have been issues exacerbated by factors outside his control that are affecting many countries besides ours. I have just appreciated a boring administration that has focused on fundamentals and put people in positions that had expertise and wanted to do the job vs low level celebs and wannabe podcasters.

The Inflation Reduction Act is the largest piece of climate legislation in US history. That's a massive win. Manchin almost scuttled it, but it appears that Biden was relevant in getting him onboard. He only had two years with a legislative majority and the Senate has been very tight the entire time. I would say this is above expectations for legislative accomplishments given that the GOP would obviously stonewall whenever possible. Judicial appointments have been good. KBJ turned out to be great and appointments in the lower court have been a strong response to the massive number of Trump appointees. Great here. Foreign policy is mixed, IMO. Getting out of Afghanistan was necessary, though I suspect any president would have done that in a similarly messy way. Continued deference to Israel is frustrating and not my preference, but also is generally aligned with the typical beliefs within the party. Executive actions have largely been good, and Biden did find a way to cancel some student debt despite significant resistance from the conservatives in the Supreme Court.

Why is it that I only ever see concern posts about Biden and the Dems here? Why are there never any posts concerned about Trump’s long list of negatives?

I made a post about Trump inviting Crips members accused of murder onstage at a rally and the mods decided that "not everything that happens in politics rises to the level of discussion"

Nobody is voting for Trump based on policies and Trump has no negatives. Being a felon is a sign that he doesn't play by the rules, hanging out with Epstein was all about getting info on the deep state, which is why Epstein died under Trumps watch (It's good for some reason don't think about it).  He's not a felon he's been prosecuted by Biden. He's not committed any crimes. And if he did it's all lies. He didn't rape any woman because he's rich and they can't rape people. Except for Diddy who is rapist.  Also, his policies are perfect. No income taxes reduces social security which we weren't going to fix. Also it was corrupt anyways. Also the younger Gen doesn't deserve it so it's all wins all the way down. Then Gaza is going to be removed from he earth so Jesus can come back or we will ignore it anyways.  Ukraine will lose to Russia so we can MAGA with the money. We will not be spending it on actual improvements to the American people becuase that's going to tax cuts.  Actually, everything is going to tax cuts for the rich for some reason.

This is sarcasm is it not ?

Trump's long list of negatives are obvious and well-known to anyone who's reading this sub. Or if you're a Trump supporter reading this sub, and we know that at least some are, they'll handwave it away or say it's not true. There are meanwhile a lot of people who are dispirited and/or willing to sit at home, and the Democrats have always sucked at messaging with their victories.

its always so difficult to know where to start with all the Trump negatives. Plenty of posts about if Trump was a good prez in 2020, though.

This is how the media has conditioned us - Biden is to blame for rainy days and when baby bumps his head on the counter, and trump is untouched by a litany of felonies. We have also decided to forget his attempted insurrection where he literally sent a mob to prevent the constitutional process of the electoral college.

Probably because every question asked here for the past 8 years results in an anti-Trump circlejerk and people are tired of the repetition.

Some democrats are bothered that both candidtes are quite old, but the *vast* majority of Democrats are super positive about his actual performance. His policy has been really good.

> Some democrats are bothered that both candidtes are quite old, When someone says Biden's age is a significant problem, it makes me think there is nothing very significant wrong with him.

I've noticed that every list of his accomplishments on reddit consist mostly of legislation he neither wrote nor proposed. Those are congresses achievement. Not his. Judge Biden by his actions as an executive leader and his list of accomplishments is dwarfed by his failures, especially when it comes to the military and foreign policy.

IMO, Biden’s most consequential accomplishments involve his handling of the Ukraine War and his general respect for democratic institutions at home and abroad. His most significant misstep is probably reversing every single one of Trump’s executive orders on immigration, primarily for political optics amongst his base. Some of Trump’s executive actions were fairly reasonable and effective at curbing illegal immigration. He did not need to cancel every single one. Rather, if he wanted to score political points, he could have just undone a token few of the most inflammatory of Trump’s executive actions. Ever since, we saw an enormous increase in illegal immigration, and I believe this may cause Biden to lose in November.

Yes, I think overall he's done pretty well. His policies are restoring U.S. manufacturing industry. He's got the inflation caused by the pandemic under control. Unemployment is the lowest its been in decades. The U.S. economy is outperforming the rest of the world. Internationally, he's also a good job: uniting Europe to support Ukraine in fighting Russia's aggression; uniting an arc of countries from India to Australia to the Philippines to Japan to retain China's aggression; not abandoning Israel despite their inhumane policies against Palestinians while pressuring them to be more humane. It's hard to imagine anyone doing better than he has.

As of June 17, 2024, per the Ruter's tracking poll Biden's approval rating stands at 36%; while disapproval rating is at 59%. When he first took office his approval rating was at 55%; by Setemeber 2, of the same year his disapproval was higher and ever since that time disapproval has consistently been higher. Furthermore, while the majority of Democrats \[71%\], still approve of him, there are 26% who now disapprove. Among the Republicans, the disapproval rate is 91% while 7% approve. The majority of white people also do not approve of him. That should tell you everything you need to know. However, by October 21, it began to further widen and now it is an all-time high. This is not merely a snapshot; it is a trend. With elections only months away, any Biden supporter should be concerned about these numbers. [Biden approval polling tracker (reuters.com)](https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-BIDEN/POLL/nmopagnqapa/)

I can be concerned about these things while still believing him to be an effective President 

Oh, we’re concerned

Positives: Inflation Reduction Act, Partial College Debt Cancellation, opened the door for negotiating drugs through medicare, shored up the ACA, repealed Trump era executive orders, one of the best recoveries from inflation amongst developed nations. Has stood firm in helping Ukraine expel Russian aggression. Negatives: possibly burnt major bridges with Gen Z, Millennials, and Muslims, the former which had been the most politically active 18-25 generation in over 40 years due to a horrendous policy in Israel and gaslighting peaceful protestors. His support of Israel's grotesque human rights violations and willingness to throw aside his promises to the international community about a re-commitment to a rules based world order threatens a permanent erosion of trust in US hegemony and an emboldening of geostrategic adversaries and far right movements abroad. His political decision to once again side against black social movements and mischaracterize BLM and George Floyd protests during his first campaign and early term, like when he stood against bussing, helped kill momentum for larger reconciliations and reforms around criminal justice. His decision to go with Garland at the DOJ was a gift to Trump avoiding greater accountability leading into the primary as Garland has dragged his feet and been every bit the weak centrist critics feared. Basically, Biden is who I expected to be after a career in the senate: A person that views politics through a lens of third-way triangulation, who strategically punches left on emerging social and civil rights issues to appeal to centrists and soft Republicans. Almost always starts out on the wrong side of history during major foreign policy endeavors, but is masterful at the game of political gamesmanship and leveraging technocratic levers to pass major economic legislation and find creative ways to incrementally and meaningfully improve social programs.

He isn't "punching left". Palestinian protestors literally protested the fucking Nova massacre exhibit What about his Israel policy is "horrendous" other than to literal pro Hamas supporters? The whole thing that YOUR position on Gaza is some "emerging" civil rights issue is nonsensical. Hey maybe Biden actually understands it better than you?

Idk who needs to hear this, but Gaza is not the most important thing on earth. Putting that aside, both the injustice of the situation and Biden's responsibility for it are often hysterically exaggerated (not that both aren't worthy of criticism, but the rhetoric has completely lost contact with reality).

Outstanding list & it’s incomplete. His admin has pushed back on monopolies & recently brought a case of price fixing by a group of companies. These actions have begun to have an impact with decreasing prices. He put more sanctions on Putin - putting him in more of a financial bind. He backs unions - even joining the auto strike. He continues to push back on Netanyahu’s attacks on Gaza. Now a majority of Israelis are protesting Netanyahu’s actions. They want the hostages freed, a political 2 state solution to be found & new elections to be held. He has improved our relationships with nations around the world - relationships that T destroyed while buddying up with dictators. He got Mexico to take more responsibility in controlling the flow of immigrants to the US. He was ready to sign a tough immigration bill which Senate Dems & GOP agreed to. The GOP senator who cochaired the committee was furious when T got The House to stop the bill. He believes in the rights of women, minorities & disabled as well as the right to choose your own religion. He believes that everyone should have the right to vote and that everyone should pay their fair share of taxes. Sadly, the majority of people in this nation know very little of these facts. The news media has increasingly failed us since Reagan snipped the Fairness Doc. Read historian Heather Richardson’s daily letters to find out the facts. She is clear & concise and connects every current situation in the nation & the world to events in history. I used to wonder how the Germans didn’t see thru Hitler & stop him early. The disinformation that has passed for news since Reagan’s action allowed Murdoch to gain a footing in Network News is the same type of garbage that Hitler used. And we could lose our democracy because of the greed of rich white men & women who have used money, religion, abortion & endless lies to gain control.

So basically what he did was made a lot of tax payers couldn't afford to go to college pay for all these other fuckers that did go to college oh boy good job

Biden is the first president to ever stand on a picket line in support of striking workers. He’s the first president to ever visit two active warzones. He has passed the most comprehensive climate legislation in the history of the country. He passed the infrastructure bill that this nation has needed for decades. He is presiding over an economy with record stock market highs, historically low unemployment. “Oh but he only helps rich people. He doesn’t care about the poor and middle class!” He capped insulin at $35. He’s forgiving student loans for people whose outstanding balance is more than the initial loan amount. The inflation reduction act actually reduced the rate of inflation by more than half. And everyone HATES him. Just because some Trump supporter or leftist told them he sucks. LOOK at what he’s done. If voters throw this away to make Trump President again, then the takeaway will be that voters don’t care about climate. They don’t care about infrastructure. They don’t care about lowering drug prices. They want a reality TV spectacle more than anything.

Reddit isn’t a place to ask about Biden. You’re only gonna get biased responses from people who drool over Biden and will never give any other candidate a chance because when they see democrat that’s all they care about. Do your own independent research and decide for your own how you feel about what he’s done. Don’t let these people tell you what to think or feel

He's okay, as presidents go. Most of this stuff is kind of on rails so to do a significantly better job than he's done would require a Lincoln or an FDR and we've had 2 of those in 230 odd years. I'd give him slightly better than even odds of winning, mostly because people are still pretty pissed about Roe.

FDR had Democratic supermajorities in the House and the Senate that passed everything he wanted during his “100 Days”. The fact that Biden has been able to accomplish all he has with a razor-thin Dem Senate majority and a dysfunctional and malevolent GOP House majority is impressive as hell.

Best president of our lifetime. All the accomplishments and competence of Clinton with none of the scandals. HW and Obama for 3rd/4th, Reagan/Carter distant 5th/6th, Bush/Trump easily the worst presidents since before the Civil War.

One of the worst presidents in the modern era, comparable to Jimmy Carter. If the media wasn't double timing to protect him he'd be polling below 30%. Even with their herculean effort he has an approval rate of 36%

Boy would I love to point out the fact he can’t put two words together, he is unable to walk off a stage, he put us in overwhelming debt, gas prices, inflations sky rocketing, his son being a criminal, the high crime rates, the extreme amount of illegal immigrants running into our country easily and murdering and raping our own people, the war in Ukraine and Israel should never have happened. Would go on but yk I’d just get downvoted bc the second you share something that leftist don’t like they try to remove you.

Two things are true: Biden is too damn old and he is deserving of another term.

He’s been fine. People here seem to like rattling off infrastructure bills or student debt cancellation, but I don’t see how they move the needle much. They’re paid for by pretty heavy deficit spending, so I don’t think he’s cracked any of the fundamental problems of tax or income inequality in the slightest. Biden has been a welcome return to normalcy in just about every way in government, which is lovely. By most metrics the U.S. is doing quite well relative to Europe or other parts of the world. He’s 81 years old, and he’s failed to elevate and transition to a younger generation of democrats. The fact that the dems have *zero* bench is a disaster. Buttigieg has been an unmitigated spectacular failure, Kamala has faded to the background. He’s a kind of calming/normal presence, can rattle off a good list of minor legislative wins… but strategically doesn’t seem to be moving us a in a meaningful direction. It feels a little bit like treading water.

I don’t think he has done anything. He is a puppet just like most presidents.

Biden's Inflation Reduction Act is, hands down, the most significant and courageous legislation I've ever seen. Probably the biggest deal since 1964's Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act. And it only passed by the barest margin due to Biden's skillful bargaining after we all thought the bill was dead. Bravo!

Yes. Best president in my life time (to include Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump). Positive: been not Trump nor Bush Negative: been not Trump nor Bush for not long enough

I don’t personally think he’s a good president and I feel he’s over hyped because of Trump being so shitty. The bar is very low now and for whatever reason the party wants to keep supporting him because ditching him could increase Trumps chances of winning. I really don’t think he can make another term, the job ages people so much due to the stress. To be fair to Biden a lot of stuff that’s happened during his term he didn’t have full control of but things don’t seem to be getting better. I still don’t know how people think Trump will fix any of our current issues, with maybe the exception of immigration I don’t see him as capable of righting the ship. Personally think we are getting ripped by both parties if these are the best people they have.

>or do his cognitive abilities hinder his ability to govern? Good job on slipping in a right wing talking point while just asking questions.

Biden Accomplishments (partial list): * Dow surpassed 40,000 * Lowest unemployment rate in 54 years * Inflation down to 3.30% * Fully vaccinated over 200 million Americans in his first year. * Passed Inflation Reduction Act * Nominated and confirmed historic judicial appointments * Passed the CHIPS and Science Act * Passed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act * Passed the Postal Service Reform Act * Passed the Safer Communities Act * Reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act * Added 15 million jobs. That’s more than any POTUS over 8 years. * Invested $7.7 billion in off-shore wind energy for America * Invested half-trillion $ in private sector manufacturing and clean energy projects which gave us... * 142,000+ new clean energy jobs * 18 new off-shore wind shipbuilding projects * Passed the American Rescue Plan * Signed the PACT Act (the largest single bill to address our service members’ exposure to burn pits and other toxins) * Passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law * Passed the Respect For Marriage Act * Passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, breaking a 30-year streak of federal inaction on gun violence legislation. * Rejoined the Paris Climate Accords * Got us out of Bush's unwinnable Afghan War * Droned al-Zawahiri into oblivion * Pardoned federal convictions of marijuana users * Freed Brittany Griner * Created student loan debt relief for working and middle class Americans * Revitalized NATO * Leading the world's nations against Putin's war against Ukraine * Solved the UPS-Teamsters strike threat * Arranged for 5 US citizens to be freed from Iran- Leads the world in trying to broker peace in Palestine * Cancelled $5 billion in student debt * **Didn't betray his country**

For me, the biggest positive is not having the constant feeling of angst I had when Trump was president. The fear that the country and even the world is on the edge of a major catastrophe. Biden is an adult. Trump is a toddler.

There was a period of time when Trump was banned on Twitter and Truth social wasn't up and running or something - and the news wasn't full of Trump. I remember seeing stories about famine and other really important but global problems on the PBS Newshour and I got the distinct impression that they were able to dedicate their limited hour of air time to things they thought were important for the public to know, not the latest White House drama. It was so refreshing (well, okay actually very depressing to hear about a famine that had been ongoing for months for the first time... But it wasn't Trump tweets!). 

“Best president in 50 years” comments. Oh man I must be living in a different world! The guy whose brain is literal mush is your best president. The bar is beneath the floor for you folks huh

Results talk. You wishing Joe was senile won't change that, but I understand your feelings are more important than facts.