Biden: We will train immigrants to be nurses 0:37
Editor's Note:
Frida Ghitis (@fridaghitis), a former CNN correspondent and producer, is a world affairs columnist.
She is a weekly CNN opinion writer, a columnist for The Washington Post, and a columnist for the World Politics Review.
The opinions expressed in this comment are yours.
(CNN) -
President Joe Biden faces the most difficult period of his still-young presidency, but you wouldn't have known it watching the laid-back, optimistic, and joking-minded politician who answered questions on the CNN forum this Thursday for the night.
The Biden who appeared on that Baltimore scene was the man who won the presidential election, a skilled politician, experienced in standing up to voters, humane, supportive, defending plans that most Americans support.
However, if you expected the performance to boost your declining fortune, it is unlikely that it will.
Not just because the right-wing media will mercilessly despise his performance, but because Americans will wait to see if it can produce results.
Biden's approval ratings are unlikely to change course before his big legislative proposals are signed into law.
Amid arduous negotiations with other Democrats on the details of that huge transformative legislative package, Biden demonstrated that he has mastered the complicated facts and nuances of the many moving parts of the legislation, from corporate taxation to tax credits for taxes. children, from financial support to community colleges to payments for hearing aids.
Biden: The first thing I did was go back to the Paris Agreement 0:33
He interspersed details about the ongoing conversations with the moderate senators who oppose some parts of the plan, with their characteristic displays of humanity and empathy, along with a refreshing dose of wit, including some self-deprecating humor.
Biden didn't just feel comfortable in that environment.
It was really fun.
But he also listened and connected with the public.
When one person spoke to her about the difficulties of caring for her elderly parents with dementia, she said, "If my mother were here, she would say that you are a good daughter."
He joked that the first lady, Jill Biden, who teaches at a community college, kicked him out of the room for removing funding for free community colleges from the plan, but vowed to keep fighting to get it.
And he showed that he deals with issues that go beyond the broadly defined infrastructure issues that occupy most of his time these days.
He revealed that he could deploy the National Guard to help solve supply chain problems, in particular the unloading of cargo ships, and made some remarkably strong statements on foreign policy.
When asked if the United States would defend Taiwan from China if necessary, he did not hesitate.
"Yes," he said, "we are committed to doing so."
In a polarized country, with a right-wing media machine backing anti-Biden forces, I don't expect many at Fox News, much less his smaller Trumpist competitors, to acknowledge that Biden was consistent, articulate, and intricate fact-mastery. .
Instead, I suspect the audience will mostly see biased edited clips of Biden stuttering and stuttering, as proof that he's not up to the job.
Joe Biden Says He's Considering Deploying the National Guard to Alleviate Supply Chain Crisis
In the end, Biden's political position will not depend on the impact of the forum, but on the success of his negotiations to pass his legislative agenda.
Biden seemed optimistic about it.
Maybe that's why he was in such a good mood.
Biden