Inside the Biden Bubble

[babylonsister]

https://politicalwire.com/2021/04/27/inside-the-biden-bubble/

Inside the Biden Bubble
April 27, 2021 at 10:48 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

Politico: “One hundred days into the Biden administration, the White House is a tight ship defined by insularity, internal power centers and top down micromanagement — interviews with nearly two dozen people across the administration, including senior White House officials, reveal. The result is a unit that doesn’t leak (at least not that often) and that stays on script (most of the time). But it is also one where there is competition to show proximity to the boss and occasional difficulty in moving agenda items along in a timely manner.”

“Still, some aides complain Biden is kept in too much of a bubble, one where few people can get his ear outside of a cadre of loyalists he’s cultivated for decades. Exhaustion is setting in amid a punishing — and relentlessly serious — remote work regimen, with little opportunity for the levity breaks of past White Houses. Others concede that the heavy-handedness is mucking up the works.”

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https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/27/biden-white-house-culture-484836
Inside Biden’s bubble: How an insular White House has kept drama and leaks at a minimum

snip//

By and large, however, it is working. Biden has befuddled critics and pleased progressives. He’s taken myriad actions, big and small, using executive orders, the bully pulpit and Congress. He’s done it in a way so drama-free, it couldn’t be more antithetical to his predecessor. There’s little infighting or even signs of internal disagreement.

“They used to say ‘no drama Obama’ but honestly this White House is even more devoid of that,” said one White House official who also worked in the Obama administration.

“Part of Biden’s promise during the campaign was to lower the temperature and not treat the presidency like a reality show and that’s a promise he’s delivered on,” said Ben LaBolt, a former Obama official who is also close to the Biden White House. “I think here you see people who are 100 percent focused on addressing a national crisis and not professional positioning. They’re focused on results.”

LaBolt added that the experience of the people Biden put around him is paying off. “They’re technocrats who understand politics — that’s a powerful combination when it comes to government.”

more...

[NoMoreRepugs]

1. One needs to factor in what an incredible mess they

stepped into after having little to NO transition help from the clownshow that was there.

[peppertree]

3. +1

The most astounding transition since the hapless (and petty) Hoover to FDR.

[Aviation Pro]

14. Shit show vice clown show

Clown shows have value.

[Scrivener7]

2. Are these people serious? Honestly, they will throw any

crap at a wall and call it a story.

Essentially, they're a tight, effective, professional group who are getting tons done and after months of constant work, some are tired.

That's the story. And apparently, that's a bad thing.

[PatSeg]

12. Yeah, that's my take as well

Sounds like they are looking for a story where none exists. Guess it must be hard to report positive White House stories, not enough drama.

[mountain grammy]

22. Agree!

Trump was their drug.. they're going through withdrawal.

[UpInArms]

4. Sounds like Politico is

Working hard to make some “drama”

meh

[PortTack]

9. Exactly! Politico can go f..k off...and take their shitty analysis with them

[NewHendoLib]

5. the MSM is clearly missing the daily eyeball popping drama. They do. not. care about us or the

country....just money and entertainment value. trump was a wet dream for them. Turning it all off 12 years ago was one of the best decisions we ever made.

[uponit7771]

6. +1, kGQP still sympathizes with the 1/6 terrorist and some in M$M wants pageantry

[Beastly Boy]

7. Not a bad thing. It appears the bubble strategy is an effective one in this case.

From what I can see so far, it effectively keeps distractions out of the executive decision making processes and helps focus the administration on setting and achieving clear priorities that keeps moving the Biden agenda forward. It prevents the unnecessary dispersion of political capital on a multitude of ancillary issues outside the bubble that constantly compete for Biden's attention. The man knows how to get his priorities in order.

One man's "insularity, internal power centers and top down micromanagement" is another man's cohesion, discipline and sharp focus on the "big picture".

[Brainstormy]

8. Hilarious article.

I thought I was reading The Onion.

[-misanthroptimist]

10. Biden has been a very pleasant surprise thus far.

He was far down my list of preferences in the primaries. But I can't think of anyone I had above him that could have accomplished more than Biden. Most probably wouldn't have accomplished as much. And it's not just the amount he has accomplished, it's what he's accomplished and the surprising (to me) direction he seems to be taking us.

[Jon King]

11. Nice try Politico.

Its a once in a hundred year pandemic and Biden inherited a total collapse of many government agencies. So yeah, there will be 'less frivolity' and 'more exhaustion' then in years past.

Nice try at trying to find problems where only competency exists.

[DFW]

13. In other words, "Democrats in Disarray 2.0"

I think Politico has adopted the comment of Roger Ailes when he was setting up Fox "News," namely "we have an agenda."

Paul Simon's song "One Trick Pony" comes to mind.

[Historic NY]

15. Maybe the press should be reporting on what happening,

not looking for the kind of bullshit the previous guy made daily. This isn't gladiators in the coliseum, where each day staff have to compete to please. This isn't every day when every comment is walked back for another.

[Hugin]

16. It's tough retro-governing the vacuum of the last term...

while simultaneously keeping the promises of the first 100 days of your own.

What can I say?

[halfulglas]

17. Politico is lazy and whining that it's not easy any more.

Politico gained some respect during the last 4 years because of how leaky the previous administration was and got a lot of big stories. There was a disorganized White House where the head of it liked the chaos even though he complained about the leaks. He paid attention to the things he wanted to and left a lot of stuff to others to take care of. The current administration runs a much tighter ship with rules and Politico can't run an Oh My God story every other day. Well boo hoo.

We'll see how this situation shakes out once the pandemic is under control the staff is in their normal offices.

[peggysue2]

18. Though Politico and other pubs would be loath to admit it?

They miss the Squatter-in-Chief and his knucklehead devotees, the chaos and daily clusterf*ck. The 'stories' wrote themselves and readers gobbled them up.

Ooooo, what did Trump tweet today or what did he aim his destruct button at or who did he fire, etc., etc., etc.

Now, they need to stretch to write those 'balanced' pieces--the good and the bad, the bothsiderism, the whataboutism. The description of the WH as insular and micromanaged sounds bad but then they have to admit: the Administration is focused on results and the approach is paying off. And Oh Noes, the WH is not leaking and there's no infighting and . . .

Wearisome at best. The press should take a turn on Thumper's philosophy:

When you have nothing to write, then it's better to write nothing at all.

[Harker]

19. I sure miss all the levity breaks now that I'm retired. n/t

[jaxexpat]

20. Letsee, We got a global pandemic, social upheaval bordering on rebellion, inherited government....

stumbling along at half throttle powered by a fact denying electorate and the mail's late...again! And whadda we got to fix it? Mr. Seriously Organized, totally functional WITHOUT the drama, narcissistic nihilism, fantastic based fabrications and prognostications, limelight stealing or daily treason. Making real progress toward remediation of real problems in the real word.....er.....actual reality.

I do believe the M$M misses their free entertainment "reality star wanna be" filling their headlines and TeeVee 24/7, on the cheap. Their ingenious response? If it ain't broke, break it yourself, live and on the air, then whine about all the important stuff that needs to be fixed and nobody's doing anything. If it means lying about issues that are way easy to check for confirmation, well then, simply load on more made up issues, so much, so rapidly that the countering responses are drowned in the onslaught of fresh nonsense. To the point that the viewership/readership are composed of ONLY two minds: the one that believes all the bad stuff about Biden and the Democrats without so much as a single doubt and the other that has given up listening to the headlines at all until they've lasted for a week or two, then checking for confirmation, then hanging onto their doubt.

Always the doubt. But. Hey. Life ain't necessarily a religious experience.

[The Polack MSgt]

21. I don't think the "Democrats in Array" angle has legs

But nice try Teagan