50 things that are better already
President Biden has not completed his first week in office, but already there is much to celebrate. Let’s count the ways:
1 . You can ignore Twitter
2 . The White House briefing room is not an Orwellian nightmare of lies
3 . We are now confronting white domestic terrorism
4 . We are not paying for golf trips
5 . There are no presidential relatives in government
A message to retiring Republicans: You can rescue your party
6 . The tenor of hearings is sober and serious
7 . Qualified and knowledgeable nominees have been selected for senior spots
8 . We have a first lady who engages with the public
9 . We have not heard a word from presidential children
1 0. We are now tough on Russian human rights abuses
1 1. We get normal readouts of sane conversations between the president and foreign leaders
1 2. The White House philosophy is to underpromise and overdeliver, not the other way around
1 3. Manners are in, bullying is out
1 4. You feel calmer after hearing the president
1 5. Fact-checkers are not overworked
What Biden is going to do about racial inequity
1 6. Quality entertainers want to perform for the White House
1 7. We have seen the president’s tax records
1 8. The president is able to articulate policy details, coherently even
1 9. The worst the press can come up with is the president’s watch
2 0. We have a White House staff that looks like America
2 1. We have a national covid-19 plan
2 2. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony S. Fauci is liberated, sounds happy and even looks younger
2 3. Fauci, not the president, briefs on the science of covid-19 and efficacy of vaccines
2 4. Masks and social distancing in the White House
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2 5. The White House has policy initiatives and proposals, not merely leaving it all to Congress
2 6. The administration is committed to releasing information, not covering it up, on the slaughter of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
2 7. The Muslim ban is gone
2 8. It is the Republicans not the Democrats who are in disarray
2 9. The national security adviser has not been fired for lying to the FBI
3 0. No Soviet-style fawning over the president by his subordinates
3 1. The president takes daily, in-person intelligence briefings
3 2. The president does not care about Air Force One colors
3 3. We have a president familiar with the Constitution
3 4. Real cable news outlets get high ratings, others not so much
3 5. President Andrew Jackson is out of the Oval Office, Benjamin Franklin is in
3 6. Voice of America is back in the hands of actual journalists
3 7. We get memes about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), not crowd size
3 8. We are back in the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization
3 9. Instead of running it like a business, the new administration will try running government competently
4 0. We have a president who doesn’t think military service is for “suckers” and who doesn’t send his “love” to people assaulting law enforcement
4 1. The secretary of treasury nominee has her own Hamilton lyrics
4 2. Amanda Gorman is a household name
4 3. More than two-thirds of Americans approve of the White House covid-19 approach.
4 4. No more work-free “executive time” in the presidential living quarters
4 5. We have a [churchgoing](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/23/us/biden-catholic-christian.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage) president “who has spent a lifetime steeped in Christian rituals and practices.”
4 6. We have first dogs
4 7. The vice president’s spouse does not teach at a school that bars LGBTQ students
4 8. The White House takes the Hatch Act seriously
4 9. The administration wants as many people as possible to vote
5 0. The president will talk more to our allies than to Russian President Vladimir Putin