Biden’s Fast Start About to Hit Wall of Bipartisanship

“In the weeks before taking office, President Biden and his aides spent time digging into books about Franklin D. Roosevelt, both biographies and volumes exploring his iconic first 100 days, on the theory that no president since then has taken office with the country in a crisis quite so grave,” the New York Times reports.

“They devised their own opening-days blitz by essentially compressing 100 days into 10. Mr. Biden has now signed about 45 executive orders, memorandums or proclamations enacting or at least initiating major policy shifts on a wide array of issues, including the coronavirus pandemic, racial justice, immigration, climate change and transgender rights.”

“But if Mr. Biden has gotten off to the fastest start of any president since Roosevelt, the speed bumps ahead threaten to drain his momentum. He heads into a more grinding February featuring contentious legislative negotiations over his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, a molasseslike process to confirm the rest of his senior team and the unwelcome and unpredictable distraction of a Senate impeachment trial of his predecessor.”