We have badly underestimated Joe Biden.
This has been going on for some time. When he appeared onstage in the first few mass debates in the fall of 2019, nobody gave him a chance to win the nomination. A lot of people said he was old news. Too old, too white, too male, too much of an old-style politician. I admit being surprised to see him there. I liked him as vice president but vice presidents get no respect. Yet there he was, gamely competing in a no-win candidate lineup with over a dozen other hopefuls.
Nobody took him seriously. But he won anyway. “Inconceivable!” Wallace Shawn’s character, Vizzini, kept shouting in the film “Princess Bride” every time Dread Pirate Roberts overcame yet another impossible obstacle.
No one, least of all the media, was sure that, having won the nomination, Joe Biden could possibly defeat Dread Pirate Trump in the 2020 election.
But he won anyway.
“Inconceivable!” they exclaimed.
So inconceivable that the MAGA Republicans assumed the election must have been stolen. Democrats and Independents, meanwhile, could scarcely believe, in the throes of a pandemic, with the 2000 election debacle still fresh in our minds, that this country could possibly run a clean, fair election.
But we did just that, in spite of every attempt by the MAGA insurrectionists to deny it and overturn it.
And no one believed that, having won the election, Joe Biden could possibly be an effective president with only the narrowest of majorities in the House and Senate to work with, which they only achieved by winning not one but two special elections! In Georgia!
Inconceivable!
But he was an effective president anyway, in spite of Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and the full complement of Republican obstructionism. The result? An inconceivably long list of transformative legislation, passed. The media was in such disbelief, they didn’t bother reporting on it, focusing instead on how Joe and his party were obviously going to lose big time in the 2022 mid-term elections.
But the Democrats defied conventional wisdom (the only kind of wisdom the media practices) and vastly exceeded expectations. Never mind. All the polls (which are never wrong) showed that Joe was going to get trounced by Trump in 2024 and didn’t have the good sense to declare himself a one-term president. He had low approval ratings, we were told, obsessively, and Americans felt the economy must be bad because the media and Republicans said so, and because most economists (who are never wrong) predicted an imminent Recession. So the media didn’t bother reporting that the economy was wildly exceeding expectations. Must be a fluke.
Then Joe announced he was running for a second term. Inconceivable! Too old! All the polling says so — not to mention one Republican special investigator, who had no business saying so, but said so anyway. So all the Eeyore, Downer, Worry-Wart Democrats dived headfirst into the Slough of Despond.
Which brought us to last week’s State of the Union Address, when we were sure Joe would fall flat on his wrinkled face.
Instead, with all the waning energy he could muster, Joe Biden …
… Kicked ass! Just as he did in last year’s State of the Union Address (guess the media forgot).
Inconceivable!
He roasted the Republicans, and especially his “predecessor,” then offered a hopeful, sensible, sane vision for the future and proved not only that he’s capable of doing the job for another four years, but also that he’s exactly the right person at the right time to right the ship of state and restore faith in government.
Maybe we need to stop underestimating Joe Biden.
In fact, we need to do a lot more than that. We need to stop overestimating his opponent. A lot of Americans still think Trump is stronger, but he’s not. A lot of Americans (who should know better) think Biden is old and weak, but he’s not, as he showed last Thursday night, and he’s ready to rumble with those who are out to destroy democracy.
You can’t fake the fire within. Biden is the real deal — a big f-ing deal.
After decades of Democrats playing nice, finally, finally, finally, finally, we have someone willing to stand up to ruthless Republicans. With Biden, the State of the Union is getting stronger. With Trump, the State of Disunion will only get weaker.
America is inconceivably lucky to have Biden as president. We have been blessed, periodically, throughout our history. I don’t know if we deserve it, or if we’re smart enough to appreciate it, but at critical moments, individuals like Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and now Joe Biden emerge, seemingly out of nowhere, to save democracy.
And if that seems inconceivable to you, maybe you need to get over it.
All we need to do now is come together — with enthusiasm— and deliver him a governing majority in Congress.
Biden is doing his part.
It’s up to us to do ours.