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**DECEMBER 9, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
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**** The Biden Paradox
He deserves our thanks, but 2024 could be trouble.
Joe Biden has had a better two years than we had any reason to expect.
If he were 60, he would have high approval ratings and would be the
odds-on favorite to win re-election.
The problem is that he is 80 and looks it. If Rick DeSantis is the
Republican nominee, he could well defeat Biden.
My reporting suggests that many Democratic officials, who are publicly
backing Biden's decision to seek re-election, privately wish he would
retire after one successful term. Weirdly, Biden's best chance to win
would be if Trump were the Republican nominee.
Biden, as a far more progressive president than we anticipated, has been
an affirmation for
**American Prospect** values and politics. We founded this magazine 34
years ago, after the Democrats had lost three straight presidential
elections. We intended the
**Prospect** to be a xxxxxx against the drift to the right and a beacon
for practical progressive politics.
That drift included not just the Republican Party, but too many
corporate Democrats and the conventional wisdom in the media. At the
time, many commentators concluded that the Democrats' main problem was
that they hadn't become more like Republicans.
We believed the opposite. The Democrats had lost their way as champions
of working families and regulators of capitalism. Democrats needed to
reclaim the ideology of FDR.
The founders of this magazine have lived to see a time when our ideas
have had a major influence on national policy. After three Democratic
presidents embraced far too much of the neoliberal recipe and cozied up
to Wall Street, people who have been part of the
**Prospect** family are now helping to make national policy.
The founders of this magazine have also had the great pleasure of
finding a successor, David Dayen, whose leadership is taking the
**Prospect** to new heights of excellence and influence.
In our coverage of Biden, we are neither cheerleader nor scourge. We
continue to investigate the corruption of capitalism and the undertow on
Democratic politics. We praise the administration when praise is due and
criticize it when criticism is warranted. Above all, we do deep
investigations of how power is exercised.
Some of Biden's shift to the left was accidental-the pandemic
required drastic measures. Politics also moved left because reality
discredited the claims of neoliberalism and ordinary people were fed up.
But progressive ideas were in the air, and the
**Prospect** has been a big part of that shift.
A personal plea: I was a young pup when I co-founded this magazine.
I'm now in my seventies. It is a source of real joy and affirmation
that a new generation is leading the
**Prospect**; that it is more influential than ever; and that I continue
to be part of it.
So if you read these newsletters and value what we do, please become a
paid supporter of this magazine. Just click on this link
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Happy holidays to you and yours.
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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Bernie to Biden: You Can Give Rail Workers Sick Days
<[link removed]>
The Vermont senator leads over 70 members of Congress urging the
president to sign an executive order extending sick days for federal
contract workers to the rail industry. BY DAVID DAYEN
Nonviolence From a Military Angle
<[link removed]>
A new history of the civil rights movement gets a lot right but falls
short in trying to reframe the story. BY RANDALL KENNEDY
Raised Voices, Raised Fists
<[link removed]>
Black athletes are uplifted for their talent but denigrated for speaking
out. Still some are compelled to bear that burden. BY RAMENDA CYRUS
New York's Chief Financial Regulator Promised Climate Action This
Year. Where Is It?
<[link removed]>
Wall Street watchdog Adrienne Harris said her department would release
climate change guidance for banks in 2022. She's yet to publish a
draft. BY SAM MELLINS
Altercation: Bibi and Donald, Growing Even Worse
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Illiberal leaders, by inclination and also in hopes of avoiding the
slammer BY ERIC ALTERMAN
â© Do Veterans Need a New Agenda in Washington?
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A discussion of issues affecting veterans and why progressives should
pay more attention to veterans affairs BY PROSPECT STAFF
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