This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The answer to the question posed in this blog headline is perplexing.

When I voted for Joe Biden in the last election, it was not hard for me to do so.  Anything – anything – was better than Donald Trump.

I still believe that to be the case.

Even with missteps by the Biden Administration.

Then, I read an essay by Joseph Epstein that appeared in the Wall Street Journal under this headline:

The Unbearable Lightness of Biden:  The man has no firm principles which makes the country feel sadly leaderless.

While that headline went too far for me, it got me to thinking again about the Office of the Presidency.  I still would rather have Biden there than Trump.  Easy choice.

Epstein’s piece starts this way:

“When I listen to a speech by President Biden I am occasionally in agreement, often bored, rarely exhilarated and never inspired.  I realize that he doesn’t write these speeches; few presidents since Abraham Lincoln have written their own speeches.  Ronald Reagan didn’t even write the sentence for which he is best remembered:  ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’  Peter Robinson, a speechwriter, did.

“Something central is missing from President Biden’s speeches, the same thing that is missing from the man.  It’s gravitas—that dignity, seriousness, and convincing solemnity that powerful public utterances carry.

“Biden simply doesn’t have gravitas in him.  In his political career he has always seemed less a public servant than an operator, less a president than a backroom politician.  Yet, thanks chiefly to American voters’ deep repugnance toward Donald Trump—surely more than half of Biden’s 81 million votes in 2020 weren’t for him but against Trump—Joe Biden ended up president.”

What does “gravitas” mean?  Well, in the quote above, Epstein defines it.  For me, the best meaning is to use the word inspiration.  Does a political figure provide inspiration along his or her way toward governing?

On occasion, Biden does, especially when he describes his personal travails over the years when he has lost loved ones in his family.

But, in political terms, Biden sometimes comes up short when it comes to providing inspiration.

Part of the reason could be that, in today’s terrible state of politics, most Republicans wish Biden only ill, thus opposing everything he proposes or stands for, even if his actions are good for America – and even if they would inspire.

Overall, I also support political figures who don’t focus as much on burnishing their reputation as on doing the hard work of finding middle ground on tough public policy issues – and that, in turn, for me, burnishes their reputation.

My generalizations about Biden:

• He is not Trump and that, in and of itself, is enough for me.
• He does not employ lying as second nature as Trump did.
• He gives the impression of trying to do the right thing for America, never an easy task given the tension of national and international relations, aggravated by the pandemic.
• He needs to get better at what is not his innate skill, which is make a public case for his actions.
• He also needs to illustrate words and traits that stem from what he really believes in his heart of hearts.  We, as Americans, need to see his true self – his vision for our country – even if we might differ with that vision.

On a current issue, the Ukraine-Russia challenge, Biden uttered words that, if they had been covered more extensively by national media, would illustrate something of Biden’s vision, even his inapiration:  

“This is about more than just Russia and Ukraine,” Biden said. “It’s about standing for what we believe in, for the future we want for our world, for liberty…the right of countless countries to choose their own destiny, and the right of people to determine their own futures, for the principle that a country can’t change its neighbor’s borders by force.  That’s our vision. And toward that end, I’m confident that vision, that freedom will prevail.”

Biden ended his speech with a significant statement:  “Thank you,” he said, “I’ll keep you informed.”  With that, he echoed Democrat President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and reinforced democrat norms:  The president answers to the American people.

So, to answer the question in the headline on this blog, with Biden we get someone who is trying to do the right thing, thus “inspiring” my confidence.