Biden’s secret weapon
I’m something of a stickler (some might say a curmudgeon) for good service. It’s a pet peeve of mine that there is so much bad service out there. Good service isn’t hard. It requires empathy, common sense, dedication and competence. It is the ultimate expression in business of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
For instance, I’m a little tired of being greeted by grocery store cashiers with grumpy attitudes and no concept of the simple etiquette of the words like “thank you” and “you’re welcome.” Or mechanics who can’t be bothered to explain in layman’s terms what’s wrong with my car. Or, back in the days before we bought our house, a certain letting agent who would call me and tell me they were going to find someone to fix the leaky garage roof instead of finding them first and THEN calling me.
But I think my biggest bugaboo concerns people who can’t be bothered to write things down. I was never impressed with waitpersons who want to show off what great memories they have. I want them to write my order down so they get my order right the first time, so I don’t have to worry. Or I don’t have to listen to them say, “You never ordered that!” When I was a manager of people I wanted them to come to meetings with notebooks and pens.
So more than anyone else, I want my president to write things down. I want him or her to be organised, I want him or her to have his or her facts straight and at their fingertips.
So it’s particularly obscene to me when certain democratic donors squawk at the President’s use of note cards during question and answer sessions at the White House. To me, Biden’s use of note cards means he cares. It means he thought about what he was going to say first. It means he took time to prepare. It means he’s empathic, dedicated and competent.
Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump employed both handwritten notes and telempromers. He also caught a lot of heat for it. As far as I’m concerned it’s one of the few things Trump got right during his term of office. And he got damned few things right.
It was when Trump went off his notes and spoke extemporaneously that he demonstrated what a bone-headed boob he was, what a rattle-pated loony he was, what a mallet-headed moron he was. His notes and teleprompters at least kept him within the bounds of rational expression. With them, he rose to the dignity of mere error. Without them, he was an unqualified disaster.
When Biden departs from the teleprompter or sets aside his notes he proves that he still knows what he’s talking about. He even sometimes comes across with amazing zingers and brilliant insights. It proves he knows what he’s talking about. It proves that his dedication and competence aren’t mere artefacts of his prepared notes, but are real qualities that he possesses intrinsically.
Biden’s secret weapon is that you can’t say much that’s bad about him. So his enemies and detractors make up stupid complaints that lack real deprecatory value.
What’s more, I think most voters know that. I think they know the difference between wearing a tan suit and mishandling top secret documents. I think they know the difference between a lifelong stammer and treason. They know the difference between a man who’s old but honest and a man who’s old and corrupt.
I think it’s time we gave most voters some credit for intelligence. We may have trouble with this year’s presidential election because of Russia’s interference and the treasonous members of Congress who are their useful idiots, but we won’t have difficulty with most voters when it comes to the facts.
The great majority of American voters understand that Joe Biden is doing a brilliant job, and all the chickenshit crap that’s hurled against him cannot convince them otherwise. In fact, it’s final proof that his scheming enemies really have nothing bad to say about the man. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.