Battenfeld: Biden should stick to upbeat message, avoid just another self-serving political speech

President Biden should deliver a positive, forward-looking address to the nation that highlights the reawakening of America, the successful vaccination program and financial relief from the newly-passed $1.9 trillion stimulus bill.

Yes, Biden is known as the “consoler-in-chief” but he should avoid setting too somber and negative a tone on the one year anniversary of the coronavirus lockdown. And spare us from yet another self-serving political speech.

It wouldn’t hurt to channel a little Joel Osteen, the TV pastor known for his life-affirming, postive messages who has a following of millions of people.

Americans want to look forward to better days, warmer weather, a rapid rise in vaccinations and a return to semi-normalcy — not just rehash the devastation COVID-19 has wreaked on the country.

In his speech on Thursday night, Biden should definitely pay tribute to the hundreds of thousands lost to the pandemic and the heroic first responders and doctors, nurses and medical personnel who risked their lives to save others.

But what America needs right now is a literal and figurative shot in the arm. We’ve been through a year of suffering, pain and depression that has triggered a national mental health crisis, especially for children and teens who have been deprived of in-person schooling.

Just for our own psyche, we need to be lifted up.

Whether Biden can pull it off is a whole other question.

He will have a teleprompter to get him through the address, so there shouldn’t be any gaffes or wandering sentences. And no questions from the media. The networks are pushing back their prime-time offerings to make way for Biden’s 8 p.m. address, which is expected to clock in at under a half hour.

It’s a chance for the 78-year-old Biden to show he can lead the nation through an economic and medical recovery that actually started before he took office.

Not that he will give credit to Donald Trump for anything.

Biden has stubbornly refused to acknowledge that the miraculous vaccination program was launched by Trump – so don’t expect to hear that on Thursday night.

Expect to hear Biden instead take a victory lap for the passage of the massive stimulus bill that will be delivering $1,400 checks to those in need. It was the first major legislative accomplishment of his presidency, and showed Democrats — despite the fracture in the party between progressives and moderates — could come together to pass the bill.

But it was also passed without Republican support, underscoring the partisan divide in the country.

Biden promised to unite America but has done little uniting so far, instead relying on the same old partisan rhetoric and tactics that have dominated Washington politics for decades.

And for Republicans and others who wish to avoid another self-serving political speech, there’s always Netflix.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3eypbI5