Straight Talk, no Malarky

It's refreshing to hear a president-elect who can speak in full sentences, especially one who can tell the truth without sugarcoating it or burying it in heaps of denial and obfuscation. In his press conference today, Joe Biden told the cold, hard truth about the COVID-19 pandemic and the sacrifices it will demand of Americans:

Biden: "One thing I promise you about my leadership during this crisis: I'm going to tell it to you straight. I'm going to tell you the truth. And here is the simple truth: Our darkest days in the battle against Covid are ahead of us, not behind us." pic.twitter.com/h9qHnE2F49

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 22, 2020

Joe Biden is the sort of person who trusts Americans to rise up to the challenges of the day, not a coward who lies to people in an attempt to 'avoid panic'. Trump has governed as an evil version of Zaphod Beeblebrox, it's no wonder that he believed that not seeing the peril would somehow avert the peril. The one thing that gives me some misgivings is Joe's trust that the Republicans, faced with an existential crisis, will join with the Democrats in order to protect their constituents:

Biden is really using this press conference to lean into the idea that when it comes to the coronavirus response and help to hurting Americans, he believes he can work with Republicans pic.twitter.com/f9vFahbmo8

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 22, 2020

He spent so much time in the Senate, he actually came to believe in the congeniality of political discourse, while those of us on the ground get an eyeful of the absolute hatred with which the Republican rank-and-file view anybody to the left of... I was going to write 'Mitt Romney', but they hate him too. My hope is that Biden knows that the 'kumbaya' stuff is a pipe-dream, but that he will position himself as 'healer in chief' while letting his younger, more assertive surrogates go on the attack for him. 

Biden's approach just might work, and might even be necesary in the unthinkable-yet-not-improbable event that the Republicans maintain control of the Senate. At any rate, it's good to hear someone in a position of authority who can speak in complete sentences, cogent ones even. I'm actually willing to forgive the man an occasional gaffe and a snipe at the press.