Ever since mainstream media giant Politico was sold to a right-wing conservative German multinational media conglomerate that is owned by a top million-dollar Trump donor its coverage has turned decidedly against President Joe Biden.
But on Monday as the world unites against Russian President Vladimir Putin, and even his own oligarchs – at least one – are calling for him to end his unprovoked war of choice against Ukraine, Politico published a rare and astonishingly fair and relatively positive piece on President Biden – albeit not without its thinly veiled attacks.
In “A presidency transformed,” Politico’s Playbook authors write “Biden is an Atlanticist who likes to brag about how he stayed in touch with European leaders while out of office from 2017 to 2021. He is a creature of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Munich Security Conference. He came up in politics immersed in the debates of the Cold War, which are now newly relevant. When he said recently that ‘the United States will defend every inch of NATO territory with the full force of American power,’ he could have been lifting the line from one of his 1988 presidential campaign speeches.”
“Biden, in this view, is uniquely suited for the new role that has been thrust upon him.”
All that is far better than Politico’s infamous piece in December, attacking Vice President Kamala Harris as “Bluetooth-phobic,” because she uses corded headphones – since wireless ones are easily hacked.
But here’s the best part of Monday’s Politico Playbook, an acknowledgment that Republicans and especially the MAGA crowd refuse to admit.
“It was Biden and his team’s patience and close consultation with European allies that has led to the extraordinary unity now on display. Biden’s patience waiting to impose sanctions until after the invasion, even in the face of intense criticism, has been vindicated because Putin would have pointed to preemptive sanctions as a provocation and a reason to invade. Biden said that Germany would abandon the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline if Putin attacked and he was right, because he had been engaged in quiet diplomacy on the issue all along,” Politico’s Ryan Lizza, Rachael Bade, and Eugene Daniels write.
“Biden’s surging of forces into NATO countries pushed other countries to do the same,” they continue. “Biden’s leadership on sanctions helped reluctant allies follow along. All of it was done without shaming and finger pointing. While Biden’s national security apparatus often gets criticized for being bogged down in deliberation without decision, that focus on intense consultation was rewarded by the Europeans.”
“There’s a lot of pride right now among Democrats in how Biden has handled the crisis so far,” they conclude.
Of course, there’s plenty of negativity in the piece, like “Biden world isn’t eager to talk about…sacrifice.”
“Globalization has its downsides.”
Democrats are “sweating” some “landmines.”
But as one pro-Biden social media advocate noted, “President Biden is handling the US response to the war in Ukraine so well that even @politico had to admit it.”