President Biden hits the traditionally symbolic first-100-days mark of his presidency this week, and "it has dawned on Republicans that the man their standard-bearer once mocked as 'Sleepy Joe' is a formidable adversary," Jonathan Chait writes in New York on Monday. "And the quality that has made him so effective up to this point is, well, his sleepiness." Before Biden's immediate predecessor, the last handful of presidents were "nice," but Biden is "also tedious," Chait argues:
He is relentlessly enacting an ambitious domestic agenda — signing legislation that could cut child poverty by more than half, expanding ObamaCare, and injecting the economy with a stimulus more than twice the size of what [President Barack] Obama's Congress passed in 2009 — while arousing hardly any controversy. There's nothing in Biden's vanilla-ice-cream bromides for his critics to hook on to. Republicans can't stop Biden because he is boring them to death. [Jonathan Chait, New York]
Biden's new persona has been very effective at promoting progressive ideas in a way that strikes centrist voters as pretty anodyne, Democratic strategist Cornell Belcher tells the Los Angeles Times. "You cannot underestimate how comfortable Uncle Joe is for a lot of people. They give an old, white guy the benefit of the doubt."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Certainly, "lowering the temperature of Washington's political debates" has helped Biden's agenda, David Lauter writes at the Times. "But it could create a problem down the road, depriving Biden of the fervent support that can sustain a president in bad times." If his sleepiness does end up leaving Democratic allies cold, Biden will still have hot Oval Office chocolate chip cookies for potential allies in Congress.
-
Taps could run dry in drought-stricken TehranUnder the Radar President warns that unless rationing eases water crisis, citizens may have to evacuate the capital
-
Alaska faces earth-shaking loss as seismic monitoring stations shutterIN THE SPOTLIGHT NOAA cuts have left the western seaboard without a crucial resource to measure, understand and predict tsunamis
-
10 great advent calendars for everyone (including the dog)The Week Recommends Countdown with cocktails, jams and Legos
-
Trump pardons 2020 fake electors, other GOP alliesSpeed Read The president pardoned Rudy Giuliani and more who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss
-
Supreme Court to decide on mail-in ballot limitsSpeed Read The court will determine whether states can count mail-in ballots received after Election Day
-
Democrats split as Senate votes to end shutdownSpeed Read The proposed deal does not extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, the Democrats’ main demand
-
USDA orders states to ‘undo’ full SNAP paymentsSpeed Read The Trump administration is telling states not to pay full November food stamp benefits
-
Senate takes first step to end record shutdownSpeed Read Eight senators in the Democratic caucus voted with Republicans to advance legislation to reopen the government
-
Has Zohran Mamdani shown the Democrats how to win again?Today’s Big Question New York City mayoral election touted as victory for left-wing populists but moderate centrist wins elsewhere present more complex path for Democratic Party
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
