(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Joe Biden is the Columbo of politics [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-15 The Columbo Fandom Wiki describes one of my favorite TV detectives like this: “Columbo is a disheveled, shabbily dressed, seemingly slow-witted police detective whose fumbling, overly polite manner makes him an unlikely choice to solve any crimes, least of all murder. However, he is actually a brilliant detective with an eye for minute details and the ability to piece together seemingly unrelated incidents and information to solve crimes.” Columbo’s most famous strength as a detective is his gift for getting people to underestimate him. But that strength alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Columbo is also an excellent judge of human character and behavior. He usually hones in on his prime suspect right from the beginning, but spends a lot of energy smokescreening his initial clarity about who-almost-certainly-dunnit. Often, however, Columbo’s relationship with the prime suspect shifts about halfway through each episode. At this point Columbo begins tightening his orbit around his suspect, showing up at inconvenient times, still professing to only be looking for some missing tidbit of information that would help tie up a loose end, but by now we know that Columbo and the suspect both know that he’s not going to stop dogging their heels. At this point Columbo’s biggest asset is no longer his ability to get people to underestimate him, but rather his relentless drive to keep adding pieces of evidence that narrow the baddie’s options until they’ve all run out. Finally, Columbo’s arrests almost always involve an exhausted and exasperated suspect who has surrendered peacefully to the lieutenant. (There’s only one episode out of 69 in which he fires a gun.) Alas, Peter Falk has gone on to the World to Come (as my tradition refers to the mystery that awaits us after death). But a living incarnation of Falk’s most enduring character walks among us today. It’s President Biden. No, Joe is not a detective. He’s also not a shabby dresser. But he is really good at getting the things he wants done in one of the hardest jobs there is to do that. And he has done a lot of it by sticking to his well-practiced routines, which include his excellent ability to manage the political assets he has available and maximize achievement within the system as it exists. He is also a keen judge of political probabilities and timing, which makes him very good at knowing when the opposition’s bluster can’t be backed up by actual power, or even when it’s a good time to get something unpopular but necessary done versus when it isn’t. Add in his talent for reading other people, including their motives and their personal tendencies, and you end up with the guy who just talked Kevin McCarthy into raising the debt ceiling and negotiating a budget deal for next year in exchange for commitments that protect something like 90 percent of the major federal investments that Biden fought for and won during the last Congress. Joe Biden does not have the glowing star power of Obama or Bill Clinton in his prime. He also, thank goodness, doesn’t have the authoritarian strong-man star power that Trump has and that DeSantis wants to have. Biden rarely gives memorable speeches, and when he does speak he occasionally stutters, mumbles, pauses oddly, or makes minor mix-ups of details that have to be corrected later. While he certainly cuts a fine figure of an active 80 year old man - slim, tall, and confident in a sharp suit, he isn’t a magnetic personality. He is warm, intelligent, sincere, and at times pugnacioius, optimistic, or inspiring. In person I’ll bet he listens well and makes people feel seen and heard - he has those gifts. But he’s not fascinated with himself or his unique claim to fame - he’s more grandpa than celebrity - and those qualities too are part of his sometimes surprising appeal. Biden also doesn’t react to the day to day or week to week media speculation factory, as they wonder out loud why he hasn’t already said or done this or that. (On the left, that started out with “why hasn’t he already shut Joe Manchin down and forced him to vote the right way,” and pivoted to “why did he pick Merrick Garland who is going too slow with prosecuting Trump” to “why hasn’t he already said he’s going to invoke the 14th Amendment and ignore McCarthy?”) Instead, he keeps his cards close to his vest and focuses with his team on correctly analyzing the politics involved in whatever the major issue at hand is. When it was getting the first big bills passed that dramatically increased federal spending on badly needed infrastructure, social investments, and climate policy, he let the media and the pundits of right and left stew and speculate about “what the heck he was doing” trying to get past the hurdles that Manchin and Sinema were putting in the way. And yet, in the end, he got most of it all passed. With McCarthy, he let an ever widening group of his supporters and detractors speculate that he was caving in to the House Freedom Caucus radicals, or else that he didn’t seem to know what he was doing. Behind closed doors, in the negotiation rooms, he clearly knew what he was doing, and he got a result that I still find amazing. As a public speaker, Biden is a bit shlubby, and sometimes a little slow and deliberate in how he talks and moves. Behind the less-than-perfect orator is a person who works incredibly hard and brings deep wisdom about how Washington works to bear on getting important laws passed and repositioning the country to be: better able to avoid ecological and economic disaster; fairer to working people and professional people who aren’t rich; and better positioned to compete with China and thwart Russia’s authoritarian ambitions. He is frequently underestimated, and I think that’s part of why he is successful in this role. There’s something else worth saying about his public speaking, because even through his goofs and awkward moments will continue to fuel SNL skits, the truth is that he also has some important public speaking gifts. When he goes into full campaigning mode, we’ll see more of his public speaking strengths re-emerge. He has them, and he’s good at using them within the context of whipping up support for his vision and his proposals and repeating well-crafted messages a zillion times. That may not be the most gripping thing to watch once you’ve seen it a bunch of times, but repetition is effective and so is self-confidence, which Biden has in abundance. He’ll be underestimated as a public speaker, and he’ll campaign like a pro who knows how to say things plainly, show empathy, and show that he’s on your side. I would love it if just once there could be a moment in which Biden would begin to amble out of a room filled with Republican Congressional leaders in some future policy negotiation in which he has once again bested them but before they fully realize it. As he begins to cross the threshhold, he stops, raises up one finger and looks partway back over his shoulder, and says to them, “Oh, just one more thing…” Note: a version of this also appears on my blog www.theaccidentalrabbi.substack.com. 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