By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com
Is it too early to start talking about the new government under the command of a new president?
Aww … what the hey! Let’s go for it!
I won’t yet refer to Joseph R. Biden Jr. as president-elect. I will await the outcome of whatever legal challenges that Donald Trump will mount. My sense is that they have no basis, that Biden will be elected in due course and will begin the transition into taking office as the nation’s 46th president.
Trump is seeking to challenge the outcome of a contest that has spilled over past Election Day. We have some votes still to count. Nevada remains “out there.” So does Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina. Biden is within striking distance of the latter three. He could win them, cementing his apparent Electoral College victory.
My initial takeaway from what lies ahead is this: Joe Biden will benefit from a healthy popular vote majority that Donald Trump never had. Trump won the Electoral College in 2016, but lost the actual vote by nearly 3 million ballots. Biden is leading as of this moment by more than 3 million votes and that number is certain to climb.
This dual-track victory will give Biden some political capital he can spend. Trump didn’t have it, even though he acted as if he did when he took office in January 2017. What’s more, Biden is well-versed in the nuts and bolts of legislating whereas Trump never learned how to negotiate with federal legislators.
Biden campaigned to restore the “soul” of a nation ravaged by the chaos and confusion brought to the presidency by Donald Trump. I will await anxiously to see how that restoration will take place. We are, after all, being felled by a pandemic that has killed more than 230,000 of us, which tells me that Joe Biden will accept a heaping issue plate when he takes office next January.
One final thought …
I have resisted attaching the word “President” directly in front of Trump’s name. I make no apologies for that. I am looking forward to referencing the words and deeds of President Joe Biden.