Who dares to mock Dark Brandon now? Joe Biden keeps rolling up the wins

[marmar]

Who dares to mock Dark Brandon now? Joe Biden keeps rolling up the wins
Republicans badly underestimated Joe Biden — and in his first two years in the White House, he's driven them nuts

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 30, 2022 9:18AM (EST)


(Salon) When the 2020 presidential campaign was lurching into gear three years ago, former Vice President Joe Biden had led in the polls for months. Still, everyone kind of assumed he was a placeholder, a former office-holder with high name recognition whose campaign would nevertheless go the way of his two previous presidential bids, meaning nowhere. He was dull as dishwater compared to many of the others vying for the nomination, and nobody had ever really considered him presidential timber.

As the campaign took off, other candidates were winning in the early states even as Biden still led in national polls. Bernie Sanders Pete Buttigieg looked like the major contenders after Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, states where Biden did poorly. Then he pulled off a sweeping victory in South Carolina and shortly thereafter the race was effectively over. He went on to win the rest of the primaries handily. America was reeling during the traumatic first year of the pandemic and there was a sense that Democrats were happy to have the race settled so they could concentrate on taking down Donald Trump, which was considered Job One by every faction of the Democratic coalition.

Even so, nobody expected much of Joe Biden. He had his charms, but he was a longtime creature of Washington with an anachronistic fetish for bipartisanship. All we could realistically expect, it seemed, was some relief from the chaos and a reliable, experienced staff to help right the ship. When the Democrats barely held onto the House and squeaked out a 50-50 Senate "majority" (thanks to the runoff elections in Georgia and Trump's constant whining) everyone assumed that the Democratic agenda promised during the campaign was pretty much dead. The best we could hope for at that point was to stop the bleeding and live to fight another day.

But Biden has turned out to be full of surprises. Rather than just acting as a kindly old caretaker president until the new generation can take the wheel, his administration has been a flurry of activity, passing more Democratic domestic legislation than any president since Lyndon Johnson in the 1960s. To name just a few, he signed into law the huge American Rescue Plan in the spring of 2021 (with no Republican votes); the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act, with massive investments in climate policy and health care; the $280 billion CHIPS Act, funding a vital semiconductor industry in the U.S.; the PACT Act to help veterans; and the first federal gun control legislation in almost 30 years. In the big omnibus spending bill just passed during the lame-duck session, he got the Electoral Count Act included as a step toward avoiding another Jan. 6 debacle. Finally, Biden pushed through and signed the Respect for Marriage Act, offering at least some protection to same-sex couples against the inevitable assault from right-wing judges and legislators. Some of that legislation was even bipartisan, which seems like something out of an old black-and-white movie at this point. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/12/30/dares-to-mock-dark-brandon-now-joe-biden-keeps-rolling-up-the-wins/

[EYESORE 9001]

1. How ironic

MAGATs conjured up the ‘Brandon’ meme, which has been reappropriated for the side of good. I haven’t seen the RW version used as often, as they saw it didn’t pwn teh libz the way they’d hoped.

[Hekate]

2. No malarkey, Jack!

[Buckeyeblue]

3. He has quietly been an effective president.

I would say historically so. I think he saw some of the tentativeness of the Obama presidency and learned to avoid it. The Biden administration determines what it wants and doesn't flinch in its pursuit of it.

I think one of the reasons Biden's numbers aren't higher is that he has stayed very understated during the last two years. He doesn't run around the country patting himself on the back.

I'm still not convinced he's going to run for a second term. I'm not sure with all that he has accomplished that he needs to. And I think with how well the midterms went, he doesn't need to. The Democratic Party is in good shape. I think for the first time in years there are a good group of governors that could run a very strong national campaign.

[gratuitous]

4. "He's driven them nuts"

More of a short putt than a drive, but the meaning is clear. When the "doddering old man" jibes start on Facebook or your local news feeds, be prepared with:

The American Rescue Plan (2021)
The Inflation Reduction Act
The CHIPS Act
The PACT Act
Electoral Count Act
Respect for Marriage Act

Not all at once, but one or two citations to these major pieces of legislation can lead to a "not bad for a doddering old man, wouldn't you say?" riposte. Then post a couple more. Then a couple more. Then don't expect any more replies as the Russian botfarmers will leave the field.

[orangecrush]

5. ...

[Midnight Writer]

6. They still call him "Sleepy Joe", say he doesn't know where he is, he hides in his basement.

They keep repeating their lies about him and he keeps exposing them for the mean-spirited, incompetent, corrupt fools they are.

It's nice to have someone in charge who is competent, who is compassionate, who is honest, who attracts good people for his team, and knows how to manage a massive government.

[dlk]

7. No two ways about it

Biden is exceeding all expectations and killing it!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. I love the Dark Brandon meme

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[cilla4progress]

9. I hope he runs again.

If something happens, there's Kamala as his VP - entirely capable. Don't know if she's "electable."...elephant in the room...

Then we cross the 2028 bridge when we get to it!

[Just A Box Of Rain]

10. With all due respect to assholish comments by Heather Digby Parton

Not "everyone" believes the crapola she continues to selve up as "backhanded compliments."

Still, everyone kind of assumed he was a placeholder, a former office-holder with high name recognition whose campaign would nevertheless go the way of his two previous presidential bids, meaning nowhere. He was dull as dishwater compared to many of the others vying for the nomination, and nobody had ever really considered him presidential timber.

Malarky

Even so, nobody expected much of Joe Biden. He had his charms, but he was a longtime creature of Washington with an anachronistic fetish for bipartisanship. All we could realistically expect, it seemed, was some relief from the chaos and a reliable, experienced staff to help right the ship. When the Democrats barely held onto the House and squeaked out a 50-50 Senate "majority" (thanks to the runoff elections in Georgia and Trump's constant whining) everyone assumed that the Democratic agenda promised during the campaign was pretty much dead. The best we could hope for at that point was to stop the bleeding and live to fight another day.

Double malarkey.

Joe Biden is delivering precisely the kind of leadership that this Democrat (along with many) expected.

Heather Digby Parton, writing at the relentlessly anti-Democratic Salon website, can go to hell as far as I'm concerned. She has been dead-wrong all along and instead of being humble she suggests "everyone" as as misguided about Joe Biden as she was--while proffering up the same old tired insults.

What crap!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

11. Did he get something new passed today? Been out of loop. nt

[Cha]

12. TY!