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Writer's pictureIan Cormack

Bidens remarkable record


Biden counts it out
Here's the deal

Joe Biden IS a reasonably senior citizen and sometimes moves slowly or seemingly unsteadily. That seems to be the extent of the assessment of the man by people who are not curious enough. How he looks may not be how, or who, he is. Let's understand what has really been going on.


Biden has a remarkable record.


This article and 100 others on People, Culture, Teams, Trends, Leadership, Strategy, Productivity, Coaching, Personal Development, Psychology and many other topics are available on my Blog at this site: https://www.cormackconsulting.org/


Let's start by clarifying that in Biden's first 2 years he has done more to further America's strategic interests than any other president other than Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Here are some achievements that not enough people know:-


ALLIES and LEADERSHIP: America is back - he has removed the wedge between the US and the rest of Nato cause by another President and has used that new leadership to support American values (democracy, sovereignty, freedom), defend Ukraine ($24.8Bn) and nearly destroy one of the US's greatest geo-strategic competitors of 70 years.


STABLE LEADERSHIP TEAM: Biden's "A list" turnover is about half of Trumps. Overall Trump achieved a 92% turnover over 4 years - no business I have ever known has a turnover rate that high. This is WHY Biden is getting things done. He is a good manager.


JOBS: The best job creation record ever, by anyone. The economy added 10.7 million jobs under Biden, putting the total 1.2 million higher than before the pandemic. The unemployment rate dropped back to 3.5%; unfilled job openings surged, with over 1.7 for every unemployed jobseeker.


INFRASTRUCTURE: The amount allocated for roads, bridges, ports and more in Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure legislation is $1 Trillion, arguably the most significant legislative achievement of his first two years in office. The amount in the infrastructure bill dedicated to repair and rebuild the nation’s bridges, the single largest dedicated investment in bridges since the construction of the Eisenhower-era interstate highway system.


COVID 19: 660 million Covid vaccine doses were administered to Americans under Biden. Twenty million had received the jab before Biden took office. The vaccine was not approved until late in Donald Trump’s presidency. By the time Trump left office 424,000 Americans were dead and the disease had gotten away. In the end more people have died under Biden (another 600,000) but this was already baked in.



ECONOMIC GROWTH: Re-onshoring manufacturing factories and strategic industries like chip-making (Bidenomics) is running at the highest in 80 years and it's accelerating. Economic growth has bounced back after two consecutive quarters of negative growth, and corporate profits reached a new high. Yesterday we learned that the US economy grew 1.9% for the first six months of 2023 - massively beating economists projections


DEBT: Biden reduced the trade deficit by 1.7T in the first 2 years (yes Trillion). On debt DJT put $8Bn onto the national debt - 2x the entire American student, car, credit card and other debt other than mortgages.


ENVIRONMENT, STUDENT DEBT: Passed the inflation reduction Act - reducing the federal government budget deficit, lowering prescription drug prices for Americans, and investing into domestic energy production while promoting clean energy. This last one is the biggest climate bill in world history.


WAGES: Tackling the economy: Inflation roared back to the highest level in over 40 years before slowing markedly in late 2022. Overall, consumer prices are up nearly 14%. Gasoline is up 39.1%. Wages rose briskly, by 9.5%. But after adjusting for inflation, “real” weekly earnings went down 4.1%.


HEALTH: The number of people without health insurance went down by 4.2 million


GUNS: Gun purchases, as measured by background checks for firearm sales, declined for the second consecutive year.


BORDERS: Taking control of the borders. For the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2022, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported it stopped nearly illegal immigrants 2.4 million times, a record surge driven by sharp increases in Venezuelans, Cubans and Nicaraguans making the trek. The previous yearly high was in 2021, when CBP stopped migrants at the border 1.66 million times.


JUDGES: Biden won Senate confirmation for 97 of his picks to the federal bench during the first two years of his presidency. Biden has outpaced his two immediate predecessors - Trump and Obama.


JUSTICE: The president has granted 89 pardons - far more than any of his recent predecessors at this point in their presidencies. Donald Trump had granted 11 at this point, and George W. Bush seven. Barack Obama didn’t take any clemency action in his first two years.


Lets see what the PEW Institute says about the International opinion of Joe Biden in 6 charts pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/07/25/international-opinion-of-joe-biden-in-6-charts Confidence in Biden varies widely by region and country. In Europe alone, the share of adults who offer a positive rating of Biden ranges from 82% in Poland to just under a third (31%) in Hungary.



Northern Europe (NATO big boys) love Biden
There is confidence in Biden around the world

In the Asia-Pacific region, South Korea and Japan stand out with 70% and 62% of adults, respectively, saying they have confidence in the U.S. president. Opinion is more divided in Malaysia, Australia and Singapore. In Israel, six-in-ten adults say they have confidence in Biden, though fewer than half attach positive descriptors to him like “strong leader” (41% say this about him), “caring about ordinary people” (36%) and “charismatic” (27%).

Confidence in Biden has dropped significantly in most places surveyed in 2021 and 2022. The share of adults who have confidence in Biden on the world stage has decreased by double digits in 13 of the 14 countries surveyed in both years. In Italy, Greece, Spain and Singapore, half or more now have little or no confidence in the U.S. president. Still, in most places – including key European countries – confidence in Biden remains higher than confidence in Trump. Israel is the one exception: While 60% of Israelis have confidence in Biden, 71% said the same about Trump in 2019.


Older adults generally have more confidence in Biden than younger adults. In most countries surveyed, adults ages 50 and older are more likely than those ages 18 to 29 to have confidence in Biden. For example, nearly three-quarters of Belgians ages 50 and older give Biden positive ratings on the world stage, compared with roughly half of Belgians ages 18 to 29. Double-digit differences also exist in Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, South Korea, Sweden, Japan and France. In Hungary, Italy and Poland, the opposite pattern appears: Younger adults are more likely than older adults to have confidence in Biden.

In places where the U.S. is seen more favorably, so is Biden. For example, the two countries surveyed where people have the most favorable views of the United States – Poland and South Korea – are also among the countries where people have the most confidence in Biden. In nearly all countries surveyed, more people express a favorable view of the U.S. than confidence in Biden – though the opposite is true in the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium and Malaysia. In Germany and Australia, the share of adults with a positive view of the U.S. and confidence in Biden are roughly the same. This pattern holds at the individual level as well: Favorable views of the U.S. correlate with positive ratings of Biden.


Only 9% have confidence in Putin
Biden is as popular as the German and Frencj leaders

Confidence in Biden is similar to confidence in other Western leaders. A median of 58% of adults across the 18 surveyed countries have confidence in Biden’s handling of global affairs, just a few points lower than the median share who say the same about French President Emmanuel Macron (61%) and equal to positive ratings of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (58%). Larger shares, however, say they are not confident in Biden than say the same of his German counterpart. Within specific countries, there are greater differences in ratings of the three leaders. In Poland and Israel, for instance, larger shares are more confident in Biden than either of his European counterparts, while in Greece, it is Macron who receives the highest ratings.


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