One more selfie for the road. We love you, America. pic.twitter.com/71k46uGADV
— President Biden (@POTUS46Archive) January 20, 2025
I was busy yesterday and while I noted the fact, didn’t have time to comment on Joe Biden spending his last full day as president in South Carolina.
He was in Charleston, and I was up in the northernmost reaches of our state. I took my mother up there for the graveside services for Micah Caskey’s grandmother. Mary Jo and my mother were close friends when they were schoolgirls in Bennettsville, growing up right across Jordan Street from each other. It was a beautiful service, and I was glad the weather gave us a break so we could get up there to our hometown.
So I didn’t focus on Joe’s time in the LowCountry until I read about it in The New York Times this morning:
President Biden spent his final full day in office in South Carolina, a state he credits for helping catapult him to the White House and where he returned in his final hours as president to urge his supporters to stay engaged in the fight for a more just nation.
During visits to a historically Black church and an African American museum, Mr. Biden reflected on his history with a place that he said had played a pivotal role in his life and career and that pushed him in his efforts to restore “the soul of the nation.”…
Yep, we are the state that reversed the crazy trend toward less-suitable candidates for the Democratic nomination, and launched the right choice to the White House. And I’ve never been prouder of South Carolina than I was on Feb. 29, 2020. Here I am celebrating with some friends that night…
And here’s Joe that same night, on the stage with Jim Clyburn, who had done more than anyone else to spur that victory (yeah, the picture quality is sorry, but it’s grabbed from video of a raucous moment)…
Screenshot
And here they are together yesterday in Charleston. (I’m just linking to it since I don’t own the copyright.)
Back to our subject. Did Joe restore “the soul of the nation?” Well that’s what he had decided to do, after the shame of Charlottesville. Joe had done more for his country, and was more deserving of a peaceful retirement, than anyone I knew. But he stepped forward, and gave his all. I don’t know if we can say he saved the nation’s soul, given the way the nation behaved over this past year. But he certainly resurrected it after its ignominious death in 2016. And for those four more years of life — from 2021 to this day — the United States was again a nation its Founders could take pride in having established.
And I will always be profoundly grateful to him for that. Joe Biden is my hero.
It’s interesting (to me) that he made his appearance yesterday in Charleston, since that’s the place I saw and spoke with him last. That was when he came to campaign with James and the rest of us in October 2018. So while I’m thanking him, I’ll thank him again for that. And close with this picture from that day. I’ve shown it to you before (and it’s always there at the top of my Twitter page), but I’ll always treasure it, so here we go again…
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Love that last photo and your words of praise for President Biden.
Thanks, Carol!
His pardons out the door were pretty shameful- and gave Trump the excuse to pardon the violent rioters.
Also disappointed that he never got on the ground in Western North Carolina (Flew over it) to at least greet first responders and a reasonable group of citizens. I’ll never understand that. That’s what a leader does. It could have easily been arranged and caused minimal to no distraction.
He also never went to the site of the Ohio train derailment that is still causing problems.
I was glad he beat Trump in 2020. But Joe’s political sense really failed him badly in the last few years and his fragility was a huge, monumental problem.
A lot of people think the way you do. I see it very, very differently.
That’s fair. People see things differently. You are likely too personally attached to him to have a clear view.
a President owes it to get on the ground at disaster sites and play consoler in chief. It’s not hard, doesn’t take much time, and it’s also helpful to actually look victims in the eyes and hear from them. They also expect it and so do many of the people that want to support him.
It’s what a 73 year old Joe Biden would have done without thinking about it. It’s what a 65 year old Joe Biden would have done enthusiastically and been great at it. It’s what an 80+ year old Joe Biden couldn’t do without risking a fall or something awful in front of a tv camera.
I believe Joe cares about them (unlike Trump) and it’s what a leader does.
The pardons to family are unacceptable in every way – for folks that aren’t even charged with a crime.
Except, the pardon to Hunter made sense to me. What didn’t make sense to me is spending years telling the American people he wouldn’t pardon his son.
Rational people can understand pardoning one’s son. Rational people have much more trouble with pardoning after claiming you never would do it.
Good political sense would state you say this and repeat it often: “I am not going to comment on my son’s legal issues. I love my son.”
and instruct your spokespeople to refer to the statement above anytime and every time they are asked about the topic. “The president has been clear in that he will not comment on his son’s legal proceedings.”
That’s one bit of evidence that proves -to me- that Joe lost his political talent in the last few years and – as we are now learning- would only listen to his family and quit taking advice from his actual advisors. That’s always a mistake.
Repeat, repeat, repeat. and never say anything different and certainly don’t claim you won’t do something- and then turn around and do it.
I’d put that last part a different way — don’t make promises about what you will or won’t do in the future, when you’re not in that situation yet. You have no way of knowing what the circumstances will be at that moment.
For instance, don’t say, “Read my lips: No new taxes.” Wait and see what you need to do at the time. One of the best things George did was see that he was in a situation in which the responsible thing to do was to break that promise. I really respected him for it.
And as much as I love Jimmy Carter, I’m not even entirely sure about “I’ll never lie to you.” 🙂
Leaders should not bind themselves with promises. A leader should decide as the situation warrants…
late in the week lies spread on social media and in the talk show world that a transgendered person named Jo Ellis was piloting the Blackhawk helicopter involved in the DC plane crash.
It was an outright and intentional lie- spread by many right wingers online and right leaning “independent” news people online. I know this personally because I read them- and attempted to correct the record with facts.
As my favorite show host Michael Smerconish pointed out Friday on his Sirius radio show, this is likely because Michael had interviewed Jo Ellis, a transgendered Blackhawk pilot the morning of the crash and had published the interview online and he also published Jo’s essay on his website about her military service and experience as trans person.
Michael had interviewed her because 1) he knew her and had employed her previously and 2) he wanted to ask her about Trump’s order and intent to remove trans people from the military.
Jo is a decorated member of the military, a former helicopter mechanic and now an experienced Blackhawk pilot in the Virginia National Guard. She is a veteran of Kuwait, Iraq, and Guatemala areas of service.
Her reports that her unit, her commander and the Virginia Adjutant General in charge of the state National Guard have been “nothing but supportive” of her and continue to express private AND public support of her
As Michael said on his Saturday morning CNN show, the direct threats she is now receiving are a result of Trump’s comments and spread of dangerous misinformation.
Jo’s essay for MIchael’s website about her military service is here:
https://www.smerconish.com/exclusive-content/living-to-serve-living-as-myself-a-transgender-service-members-perspective/
Michael’s Saturday morning CNN interview with Jo about threats and the misinformation and threats directed at her as a result of the plane crash is here:
https://youtu.be/-QKnDCFzqfk?si=5fuGnvNtGoJXBySJ
And so the culture war continues, neither side wanting to let go, because they love it so much.
And it leads to such ironic comments as this one:
I think maybe she finds muggles amusing, on some level…