Moderate Living

Two days ago, President Joe Biden gave his farewell address to the American people.

His presidency was….well – let’s just say the election results spoke for themselves. What I would like to focus on though, besides his warm and gracious speech is something that I greatly appreciated about him and was unique to him and him alone.

But first, I would also like to commend The First Lady Jill Biden. Throughout her 12 years in the spotlight, she was graceful and never overstepped herself even amidst social media becoming a major factor in public perception. Her public appearances and public behavior were befitting of her and her husband’s office – and she did not allow herself to be the mouthpiece for activists disguising themselves as journalists. You simply could not have expected more from her as a First Lady. She represented that office magnificently.

And there is, of course, Vice President Harris who – during the debate with DJT, showed me a side of her that was gracious and human. After that, I regarded her as the type of person that you could start a conversation with at a party and you would end up having good laughs with.

Again, the election results speak for themselves and I’m not here to debate policy. I’m just grateful that President Biden was a leader when it came to a certain person in Europe, just across the border from Ukraine, that I won’t name because I’m not trying to get poisoned. There are just some people, and ideals that you can’t deal with in the regular realms of diplomacy. Not since Presidents Clinton and Bush did we have someone that had a strict “get-off-my-lawn” attitude with said leader. Two have tried to either understand or bribe him, with the latter’s efficacy still in question. But President Biden knew exactly who he was dealing with and it really showed when they sat face to face from each other – he meant business in a way that the 2 prior presidents conveyed differently. President Biden came from a time when the U.S. still had to show some urgency towards that country and the ideals it was trying to spread. And as the Commander In Chief, in our present time where people weren’t as concerned about it as they should have been, he still maintained that resolve. I have my own theories as to why he was as cold and steely as he was with that leader but they don’t belong on this post.

I’ll just conclude, before we transition back to President Donald Trump, that I am grateful for President Biden’s toughness – and just as important, degree of restraint – on that issue which he knew could have become existential if a Wilsonian/Chamberlin-esque, image minded, conciliatory leader were at the helm.