Well, it’s football season, so we’ll go there metaphorically. Half time (the mid-terms) for the Biden Administration is nearly here. It’s time to look at the stats for team blue.
Now Regular Joe (as opposed to Broad Way Joe) has been at this game since 1970 when he was elected to the New Castle County Council. At age 29 he was elected to the United States Senate. One of the youngest ever elected to the most exclusive club on this planet. Served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for a dozen years; then the Judiciary Committee from 1987 till 1995. He ran to quarter back the Executive Branch twice… in 1987 and again in 1995. Failed both times. Then in 2007 he chose to run with one Barack Obama. As his backup. He was at this moment the fourth senior sitting senator. He gave that up to switch leagues from the legislative branch to the executive branch: if you please. As the back up! There is an old saw that goes something like this, “There once were two brothers: one became a missionary who went to deepest darkest Africa and the other became Vice President and neither were heard from again!” Not so here!
They ran: they won. Twice. The bromance began then, still exists and is stronger today. For eight years Joe served as the backup. The bomb, their major score, was the passage of The Affordable Care Act, aka Obama Care. It passed the senate 60-39. Just enough for passage. Thank you, darlin’ Arlen Specter, (D? Pa.) Never had a single bullet gone so far! Oh yeah, they saved the auto industry too. No trick play that.
And Joe stepped off the field. The personal pain and grief of losing a son to brain cancer was consuming...debilitating. After a season off the field, he decided to run again for quarter back of the Executive Branch. After a slow start in the primaries, he won going away, as they say. The ‘W’ in the Presidential Election was most respectable and gratifying.
At the start of the first half of our current game Regular Joe quarter backed using the bipartisan play book. The fans howled. Team red doesn’t play by those rules they said. And they were right. But using a play book and knowing the rules of the game are two very different things. Joe knows the rule book front to back. He called the 50 plus one rule for budget plays in the senate for his American Rescue Plan and Kamala ran it in. (First woman backup QB...a woman of color to boot... more points for the blue team) The 1.9 trillion $ bill was signed on 3/11/21. Major score!
Infrastructure Week. That was a punch line during the previous four-year game. Joe’s Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Bill passed the senate 69/30. Guess the red team likes bridges that aren’t ready to fall down or already have and roads that don’t rattle your fillings. And the fans grumbled that yeah that one was bipartisan. So what!
The next major score was the Chip and Science Act. Ain’t talking potato chips here fans. And, stunningly, this was passed in the senate 64-33. A bipartisan vote. Not the wonder of the age...just a contender. Signed into law 8/9/22...I believe.
Now for the IRA. No, not your retirement plan fan. The Inflation Reduction Act is what I’m talking’bout. Joe again called the 50 plus rule in the senate. And again, Kamala ran it in. Passed 51/50. In a hundred-member body. Check the rule book. Csonka got nothin’ on Kamala. The best part of this play, besides the passage of the bill, is the fact that the red team's senate middle linebacker aka Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell, got blind-sided on the play. The old turtle found himself sitttin’ on a fence post with his legs waving in the air and he knows exactly who put him there. Just the look on his face….
So, half time is approaching, and team blue has run up the score pretty good. Joe gets ready for the second half with an inspirational speech to his team and fans in front of the building in Philly where the founders of this game wrote down the rules, aka The Constitution of the United Staes of America. Some in the stands complained about the red background. If you think that was an unforced error, you don’t know Joe. Isn’t red a sign of danger? The two Marines were a nice touch too A reminder, they protect The President of the United States. And their standing post added a just right aggressive touch, ordered by the Commander in Chief.
Joe told us about the new play book he would use in the second half. The bipartisan playbook put aside for the moment. Using it he got what he could from team red (a lot). When he could get nothing more, he changed the play book and... Mitch meets fence post. Divide and conquer the red team. Why yes, there are good people on the red team. Maybe most of the team. Bipartisan votes prove that. But some members of the red team are semi! A danger to the greatest game ever invented. Their fans are upset. Good. Emotional and upset people make mistakes. Make bad calls.
I don’t know how the second half will play out but we gonna find out. Well Regular Joe isn’t the goat but he will make the hall of fame next to such greats as the FDR/ Truman team. They played for 20 years and changed the world. LBJ comes to mind, if only for his domestic game. You look at Joe and what do you see? Nearing 80 there ain’t much left physically. Just bone, muscle and sinew. But, after a lifetime of studying and learning and playing the greatest game ever, this is his sublime moment!
