By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Mr. President, I am not going to flood your Twitter account with messages like this one, but I do feel the need to send you a direct message of thanks.

I occasionally would type out these missives to your predecessor. He got them, or his staff got them, and likely ignored them. Just tossed ’em in the cyber-trash can.

I heard your speech the other night from the White House and I just want to express my thanks and appreciation for the return of empathy and compassion in our head of state. We’ve all been missing that in the presidency for the past four years, as you no doubt are aware. Indeed, I heard your allusion to the absence of it in your remarks.

We need to hear these kinds of remarks from our president. You know how it goes. You served with a president, Barack Obama, who became a master of comforting a nation in pain. His predecessor, George W. Bush, managed to rally us after that terrible day on 9/11. President Bill Clinton, too, was good at trying to heal a nation grieving over tragic loss. But you know all of that, yes?

The pain we feel today is real and it is lingering. The pandemic is still with us, as you know. Yet you offered some realistic words of optimism, not the shallow happy talk based on nothing but a presidential “hunch” that we got from your immediate predecessor.

I’ll end this note now. Thanks once again for talking to us in a tone of voice that tells me that you actually do care about the people you were elected to lead … and to comfort.

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

You’re a political consultant aligned with Democratic congressional candidates, maybe even incumbent members of the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House of Representatives.

Your candidate has just voted to send his or her constituents a payment to help them cope with the economic impact of the COVID 19 pandemic and voted to extend unemployment benefits until September and voted for money to pay for millions more vaccines aimed at protecting Americans against the killer virus.

Is that a defensible position? Is it more defensible than, say, a Republican politician vote against all those things?

I think so. Yeah, I know it is a more defensible position.

The Senate has just cast a partisan vote that has approved a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package pushed hard by President Biden and his fellow Democrats. All GOP senators voted “no.” The measure has gone to the House, where the same thing will happen, with all Democrats probably voting “yes” and all Republicans likely turning thumbs down.

The 2022 midterm election looms just a bit down the road.

So, who’s in the better position? The Democrats who want the government to lend a hand? Or the Republicans who oppose that notion, citing its expense?

Were I an American who has suffered grievous economic misery from the pandemic, I would be far less concerned about the expense of the measure than whether my government — which I finance with my money — is ready to step up and deliver for me when I need the help.

Thus, the Democrats in Congress appear to be listening more intently to American public that favors the COVID relief package. Indeed, polling data suggest it isn’t even close, with more than 60 percent of Americans wanting Congress to come to the people’s aid.

So, President Biden is now poised to achieve his first major legislative victory. More to the point, though, is that congressional Democrats will have more on which to run as they prepare to run for their next election.

It’s coming up. Quickly.