Confused Biden

JAN 3, 2022 - Bernard GoldbergDid Joe Biden Stumble onto the Truth about the Virus? Finally?After striking out twice in years past, Joe Biden became president on his third time at bat pretty much for two reasons: A majority of voters didn’t like the way Donald Trump was handling the coronavirus – and a majority of voters didn’t like Donald Trump.Candidate Biden told us that he would “shut down the virus.” He told us that, “Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America.”Americans had had enough of the toxic virus and they had had enough of Donald Trump’s toxic personality – and so, a man who spent almost every day of his adult life in politics, leaving us with no memorable ideas, philosophies, or even noteworthy accomplishments, waltzed into the White House.My dear mother was right when she told me many years ago that in this country, anybody – Anybody! – could grow up to be president. Joe Biden is proof of that.And on a video call with governors last week, President Biden said of the virus: “There is no federal solution. This gets solved at the state level.”Thanks for the 411 Mr. President, which conveniently comes after you blamed your opponent for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and after you got elected, and after you realized that things weren’t going the way you told us they would.But who knows if Joe has actually come to terms with an inconvenient reality: that the virus isn’t going anywhere; that it’s here to stay. Politician that he is, maybe he figured why not shift responsibility for a “solution” from himself onto 50 governors. Or maybe, Joe being Joe, he simply wandered off message and said the first thing that popped into his head.Can you imagine the reaction from Donald Trump’s many liberal critics – including those in the media, sometimes known as the public relations wing of the Democratic Party – if he had said, “There is no federal solution”? Can you imagine Jim Acosta’s outrage over at CNN? There’s a good chance Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her “squad” along with the editorial board of the New York Times would have demanded he be impeached – for the third time!Still, I think Joe Biden has been treated too harshly by his detractors. After all, he’s not really running the show. One astute observer of this president once wrote that, “He’s sitting in the backseat eating a cookie while somebody else is driving the car.” Okay, I’m the “astute observer.” It’s not my fault that Chuck Todd or Joe Scarborough didn’t come up with such witty (yet brilliant) observation, is it?But let’s get back on the main road. If Biden thinks, “There’s no federal solution” why did his administration issue mandates for tens of millions workers to be vaccinated or tested on a regular basis? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s mandate covers companies in the private sector with 100 or more employees.Does it occur to our president that it's not easy reconciling his support of the OSHA mandate with his apparent belief that there’s no federal solution to this virus?This week the Supreme Court will hear arguments over whether the federal government has the authority to issue such a broad mandate that involves workers in the private sector. Lower courts have split on the question.But if Joe Biden, or whoever is calling the shots, really believes what he told the governors about “no federal solution,” maybe he should save everyone a whole bunch of time and inform the Supreme Court that he’s telling OSHA to withdraw his administration’s vaccine mandate. It would also be a smart political move since there’s a good chance the Court will tell the Biden Administration that its mandate is way to broad, that the federal government can’t demand such obedience from private employers and their workers, and would issue a ruling against him. Does Joe Biden really want yet another setback in his first year in office?As I say, who knows if Joe Biden really meant what he said? Who knows if he was announcing a shift in policy or wandered off the highway into a rhetorical ditch?Let’s hope our president has finally seen the light. Let’s hope that he has finally come to understand that Donald Trump was incapable of “shutting down the virus” -- and so is he. Maybe, now that he’s safely in office, he’ll have a lucid moment when he finally understands that the virus has more clout than any politician – even one who made unrealistic promises simply to get elected.