To encourage Americans to vote last Tuesday, the team of the cult show The West Wing had the brilliant idea of airing a special on HBO, recorded almost 15 years after the last episode. In other words, an eternity, in the current context.
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Francois Cardinal Press
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It included President Josiah Bartlet wonderfully embodied by Martin Sheen, a character as one could still imagine in the White House in another era: larger than life, brilliant and courageous, exercising judgment and righteousness in all circumstances.
But let’s say it right off the bat, we’re a long way from Joe Biden.
The one who is on the way to becoming the 46e President of the United States does not have much of this idealized head of state, nor does he live up to the Obamas, Kennedy or Lincoln who have ruled this great country with character.
Joe Biden’s merit lies elsewhere.
Joe Biden is the ” ordinary Joe “. He’s the average man who gets along with middle class people. It is a somewhat bland figure, without roughness, which will not revolutionize American politics.
This is, in fact, precisely what America needed.
* * *
It was with pain and misery that Joe Biden ended up winning enough for it to be understood that he will obtain the support of a majority of large voters.
It is therefore not out of enthusiasm that the electorate brought him to power, it is quite obvious. Nothing reminiscent of the breath that carried Obama to the White House, for example, when Biden was his running mate.
But let’s be honest, we were not at all in a context conducive to such a Democratic candidate. Voters were not looking for a great reformer or fireworks.
As Joe Biden himself said during the primaries, “most Americans don’t want a promise of revolution.”
“Biden’s great merit is not what he is, but rather what he is precisely not …”, writes François Cardinal.
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After just one Trump term, they were looking, mostly by the popular vote, for someone who could “restore morale in the White House.” What Joe Biden had promised as an electoral program.
The latter will thus become the “normal president”, to use the expression used by François Hollande in 2012. A label that he put forward to distinguish himself after the turbulent years of Nicolas Sarkozy, who was accused of being too to money, to be flashy, to be bling-bling. Like Trump, exactly.
“Joe Biden is a simple guy,” writes his biographer Sonia Dridi. He loves ice cream, spending time with his family and taking the train. ”
A president who is nothing special, then. Quiet and almost mundane.
* * *
In the words of Paul Auster, in an interview with L’Obs, « Joe Biden is not a madman, he is not cruel ”.
A strange way of presenting the man, in the negative. But the writer is right when you think about it: Biden’s great merit is not what he is, but rather what he is precisely not …
Joe Biden is therefore not “a madman”. He will not be the one to add fuel to the fire of racial tensions.
He won’t wink at white supremacists.
He won’t cause chaos to make himself look like a commander-in-chief who can fight him, like Trump did.
Joe Biden is also not a climate, science, or fact denier.
He will not be the one who questions the credibility of the media, institutions and checks and balances.
He is not the man whose ego is so oversized that he does not listen to anyone and kicks anyone who dares to ask any question as if it were an affront to his leadership.
* * *
And let’s add one last thing that Biden is not: the man of major political records.
It may seem problematic for a man who is about to become the most powerful head of state in the world. But no, Biden may not have great political accomplishments behind the tie, but he has a very long list of cross-party successes.
Because this is what Joe Biden is: a politician of consensus, capable of empathy and humanity, listening, able to work with everyone, including elected officials from the opposing camp.
The former senator is indeed a supporter of the “Delaware Way”, the American version of the art of compromise. According to this political tradition, writes Sonia Dridi, the solution to any problem, political or social, should include a good dose of consensus and compromise between Democrats and Republicans. ”
It will obviously be difficult in the current ultra-partisan context, let’s not be fooled. But it is hard to find an American elected representative who has a better chance of bringing the two political parties together, so much does it seem like an impossible mission.
Joe Biden has been able to do this in the past because he is centrist. Because he is appreciated by all who cross him. Because it is a rare commodity at the present time on the American political scene: a true true moderate …
We love or hate Joe Biden, but few hate him. He is not a man who divides, who tenses, who arouses hatred, as Obama could do or would have done Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
A good choice, therefore, for a president whose main mandate will be to appease and unite Americans of all stripes.
Make America Normal Again “> What do you think? Express your opinion
–
–
Francois Cardinal
Press
–
It included President Josiah Bartlet wonderfully embodied by Martin Sheen, a character as one could still imagine in the White House in another era: larger than life, brilliant and courageous, exercising judgment and righteousness in all circumstances.
But let’s say it right off the bat, we’re a long way from Joe Biden.
The one who is on the way to becoming the 46e President of the United States does not have much of this idealized head of state, nor does he live up to the Obamas, Kennedy or Lincoln who have ruled this great country with character.
Joe Biden’s merit lies elsewhere.
Joe Biden is the ” ordinary Joe “. He’s the average man who gets along with middle class people. It is a somewhat bland figure, without roughness, which will not revolutionize American politics.
This is, in fact, precisely what America needed.
* * *
It was with pain and misery that Joe Biden ended up winning enough for it to be understood that he will obtain the support of a majority of large voters.
It is therefore not out of enthusiasm that the electorate brought him to power, it is quite obvious. Nothing reminiscent of the breath that carried Obama to the White House, for example, when Biden was his running mate.
But let’s be honest, we were not at all in a context conducive to such a Democratic candidate. Voters were not looking for a great reformer or fireworks.
As Joe Biden himself said during the primaries, “most Americans don’t want a promise of revolution.”
PHOTO ROBERTO SCHMIDT, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
“Biden’s great merit is not what he is, but rather what he is precisely not …”, writes François Cardinal.
–
After just one Trump term, they were looking, mostly by the popular vote, for someone who could “restore morale in the White House.” What Joe Biden had promised as an electoral program.
The latter will thus become the “normal president”, to use the expression used by François Hollande in 2012. A label that he put forward to distinguish himself after the turbulent years of Nicolas Sarkozy, who was accused of being too to money, to be flashy, to be bling-bling. Like Trump, exactly.
“Joe Biden is a simple guy,” writes his biographer Sonia Dridi. He loves ice cream, spending time with his family and taking the train. ”
A president who is nothing special, then. Quiet and almost mundane.
* * *
In the words of Paul Auster, in an interview with L’Obs, « Joe Biden is not a madman, he is not cruel ”.
A strange way of presenting the man, in the negative. But the writer is right when you think about it: Biden’s great merit is not what he is, but rather what he is precisely not …
Joe Biden is therefore not “a madman”. He will not be the one to add fuel to the fire of racial tensions.
He won’t wink at white supremacists.
He won’t cause chaos to make himself look like a commander-in-chief who can fight him, like Trump did.
Joe Biden is also not a climate, science, or fact denier.
He will not be the one who questions the credibility of the media, institutions and checks and balances.
He is not the man whose ego is so oversized that he does not listen to anyone and kicks anyone who dares to ask any question as if it were an affront to his leadership.
* * *
And let’s add one last thing that Biden is not: the man of major political records.
It may seem problematic for a man who is about to become the most powerful head of state in the world. But no, Biden may not have great political accomplishments behind the tie, but he has a very long list of cross-party successes.
Because this is what Joe Biden is: a politician of consensus, capable of empathy and humanity, listening, able to work with everyone, including elected officials from the opposing camp.
The former senator is indeed a supporter of the “Delaware Way”, the American version of the art of compromise. According to this political tradition, writes Sonia Dridi, the solution to any problem, political or social, should include a good dose of consensus and compromise between Democrats and Republicans. ”
It will obviously be difficult in the current ultra-partisan context, let’s not be fooled. But it is hard to find an American elected representative who has a better chance of bringing the two political parties together, so much does it seem like an impossible mission.
Joe Biden has been able to do this in the past because he is centrist. Because he is appreciated by all who cross him. Because it is a rare commodity at the present time on the American political scene: a true true moderate …
We love or hate Joe Biden, but few hate him. He is not a man who divides, who tenses, who arouses hatred, as Obama could do or would have done Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
A good choice, therefore, for a president whose main mandate will be to appease and unite Americans of all stripes.
Make America Normal Again “> What do you think? Express your opinion
–
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