Boring isn’t always better for Biden

Plus: Klain’s hot take and Musk’s Twitter acquisition

President Biden speaks to reporters after disembarking Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland (Getty)
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Boring isn’t always best for Biden
A new week in Washington starts as it often does in the Biden era: with news of the president’s mid-morning return from Wilmington to the White House. AP correspondent Mark Knoller notes that this was Biden’s thirty-third weekend in Delaware since taking office.

Biden, welcomed as a bland palette-cleanser by many after the Trump years, has settled into a downright stultifying routine. Low-key weekends in Delaware, a diet of orange Gatorade, chicken salad and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, zero state dinners and early bedtimes. If the president of the United…

Boring isn’t always best for Biden

A new week in Washington starts as it often does in the Biden era: with news of the president’s mid-morning return from Wilmington to the White House. AP correspondent Mark Knoller notes that this was Biden’s thirty-third weekend in Delaware since taking office.

Biden, welcomed as a bland palette-cleanser by many after the Trump years, has settled into a downright stultifying routine. Low-key weekends in Delaware, a diet of orange Gatorade, chicken salad and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, zero state dinners and early bedtimes. If the president of the United States pushes the boat out, he may treat himself to a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

There is no Bidenworld scene in Washington, no favorite restaurants or hangouts, no juicy gossip beyond the size of Jen Psaki’s MSNBC pay packet, and no way in which the Bidens are cultural trendsetters. (We are long past the time when the pandemic was a satisfying explanation for running the country in such a dull manner.) Whereas past administrations have been had an air of glamor or intrigue or both, the current crop of low-key and mostly unknown staffers brings with it very little of either.

The president who promised “normalcy” has ushered in an era of unusual dreariness in the capital. Perhaps the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this weekend will kick things back into action. I doubt it.

These are, for the most part, social, aesthetic and fairly trivial complaints. But what’s true of the routine of daily White House life is true true of more important considerations too. As is often the case in politics, Biden’s greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. And the sober, steady-as-she-goes approach on which he built victory in 2020 has become a liability two years later.

Boringness as a governing philosophy was born out of exasperation with the hyperactivity of life in Trump’s Washington. But there is a disconnect between the image the White House thinks this low-key approach projects and how it is actually viewed by American people.

First, Biden manages to offer boredom without reassurance: the exception to his steady-hand-on-the-tiller brand is, well, the things he says to the press when he is given a long enough leash to do so. From calling for regime change in Moscow and losing his temper at reporters to misunderstanding the questions he is asked, Biden does not ooze reassuring stolidity in the way he and his team clearly think he does. His age and his temper both undermine the core of his appeal.

Second, low-key has not meant decent, polite or bipartisan, in the way the president promised on the campaign trail. Biden has been quick to dismiss Republicans as on the side of segregationists when it comes to voting rights, and accused them of “neanderthal thinking” for daring to lift Covid restrictions.

Third, sometimes events call for more than a low-key leadership style. War in Europe, real wages falling at the fastest rate in forty years. Sometimes people want the president to assert himself, to do something, or at least appear to do something. Often, the Biden White House has struggled to even acknowledge the seriousness of the situation, let alone take decisive action in response. Here, boring looks like aloof, out of touch, cold-hearted.

Some may argue that the only thing worse than a low-key Biden is an energetic Biden. Perhaps. But to want the president to show a bit of vim is not to want him to start ticking things off the progressive policy wishlist. Here, too, Biden has the worst of both worlds, somehow managing to be boring without being moderate.

From ending the pandemic and managing a crisis at the southern border to taming inflation and calming choppy geopolitical seas, Americans want a president who can demonstrate some of the energy and focus these problems demand. Is that too much to ask?

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The Tweeter-in-Chief’s Macron take

Major overseas political news inevitably brings with it a bevy of bad takes, as commentators draw  overwrought parallels between events in some far-flung land and domestic politics here in the United States. Emmanuel Macron’s reelection was no different. The centrist incumbent saw off Marine Le Pen by a comfortable 58-42 margin in the run-off to win a second term in the Élysée Palace.

The prize for the worst, most self-defeating and inadvertently funniest transposition of this development to Washington politics goes to White House chief of staff Ron Klain. The second most powerful person in the administration took to Twitter to share a “an interesting observation, just FYI,” noting that “President Macron appears to have secured a double-digit victory over LePen [sic], at a time when his approval is 36%. Hmm….”

“Hmm…” indeed. Judging by the latest approval ratings for Biden (below) as compared to those of his most likely opponents in 2024, a contest between two unpopular figures in which the least-loathed option triumphs might not have a happy ending for Mr. Klain or his boss.

Musk’s Twitter purchase is on

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter has gone from outlandish possibility to something close to a done deal, with multiple outlets reporting that an agreement could come as soon as today. This lip-smacking development was, it seems, dismissed by too many as idle trolling. It is, of course, much more than that: a massive business story with potentially far-reaching political, tech and media ramifications.

What you should be reading today

William Murchison: How we got to inflation
Josie Cox: Learning to speak American
Matt Purple: Pelosi fights, McCarthy flails
Janan Ganesh, Financial Times: No country for young men
Will Ford, Politico magazine: How far does China’s influence at US universities go? One student tried to find out
Matt Sandgren, Wall Street Journal: Orrin Hatch played the long game of politics

Poll watch

President Biden Job Approval
Approve: 40.8 percent
Disapprove: 53.8 percent
Net approval: -13.0 (RCP Average)

How often do voters discuss politics and political issues with close friends?
Everyday or nearly everyday: 4 percent
A few times a week: 12 percent
A few times a month: 24 percent
Less often: 56 percent (Echelon Insights)

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