Someone was asking me a little while ago what I would do if I were Joe Biden and wanted to try to stop the bleeding. I thought of three things, all of which would help only at the margins: Immediately pivot to leading the parade on the bipartisan negotiations on the Electoral Count Act and get to a signing ceremony at the White House with Republicans in attendance; take showy, symbolic actions on shortages and inflation, like, say (assuming he has the authority) using the National Guard at the ports — even if it doesn’t do anything, it would make the point that he’s taking the problem seriously; and fire Anthony Fauci, who now is a symbol for at least half the country of everything wrong with the pandemic response and the messaging around it, a dismissal that could be the occasion for more fully embracing a “live the virus” versus a “covid zero” strategy.
And that’s all I’ve got. I’m not a miracle worker!