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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32856 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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I had a weird moment last night of, perhaps, perceiving my own bubble. So I have to ask to verify...

Does anyone actually believe Biden is the president? I don't mean in an election integrity sense. I mean, does anyone actually believe he is the one steering the federal government or making decisions? I could whole heartedly believe Obama was the Commander in Chief. I had zero doubt George W Bush was in command of the highest Executive Office. Sure, Trump seemed to be at war with his own staff half the time, but he ostensibly tried to exercise the power of his office.

Biden seems like he just gets wheeled out to mumble some words of a teleprompter about once a month. He gets 8/10 of them correct, adlibs something he shouldn't have, and then his handlers come out the next day and "correct" his statements. It just strains my imagination to think he is in charge of crafting policy or executive decisions at all.

Then again, I have heard commentary that he's a bit of a control freak, and wants to have final say in every decision, which is why his administration basically floundered for the first year and a half. He refused to delegate and was a major bottleneck. Supposedly reporters covering him over the years, on various campaign trails, have seen this sort of behavior first hand.

So I donno, am I operating somewhere out on the fringes with this notion? Is there anybody here who fully believes Biden is every bit the President in full possession of the authority of his office that Obama or George Bush (either) were? Can you tell me why?

Biden's first day in the Oval Office, he's got a bunch of press with cameras and a huge stack of executive orders in those leather folders. Staff have been talking to everyone who will listen about how Biden's planning to reverse a bunch of Trump's executive decisions immediately--while the point was pushed a bit aggressively, this is par for the course when you get a change of administrations across parties.

At one point when Biden's working his way through the stack, he pauses and says, "What am I signing?" and an off-camera voice responds, "Just sign it." And so he does--the first of many instances in office where the strings were uncomfortably visible.

According to NBC, a few months ago:

Biden was furious that his remarks were being seen as unreliable, arguing that he speaks genuinely and reminding his staff that he’s the one who is president.

If they need the reminder, it sounds like this is an open question.

Biden will say during press conferences that he is not allowed to answer questions, and sometimes I wonder if this is a cry for help.

The politicians I managed at one point, never said that on camera, but they very definitely got strong notes from me saying things like "DO NOT ANSWER THIS QUESTION!!!!!!!. Pivot to talking about taxes/record on whatever etc).

Could they override me, sure. Though given I was employed by the party ignoring me, meant ignoring their own party which could be a bad idea.

I am not allowed to by my public relations team (because it is a bad look) is different than I am not allowed to by my mysterious puppet masters.

I have actually met Biden a couple of times (long before he was president) and he did have a habit of kind of gesturing behind the curtain which kind of fit with his folksy quasi-honesty look. Whether it plays well as President seems more of a stretch. If I was part of his team I would probably me rubbing my temples every time he did that. But maybe it is supposed to play in a kind if "I could tell you but then I would have to shoot you"

This might change my mind. Thanks.

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