Somehow we weathered and witnessed
A nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
There is always light
if only we’re brave enough to see it
if only we’re brave enough to be it.
— Amanda Gorman
A Tweet by Ayanna Pressley @AyannaPressley Your Congresswoman. Proudly representing the MA 7th. Here to break concrete ceilings & shake the table. Personal account. She/hers. Retweeted by Rashida Tlaib @RashidaTlaib Unbossed Congresswoman #Michigan13th. Detroiter, Palestinian American, Muslima.

I know literally nobody for whom Joe Biden was their #1 choice when the 2020 race began, and in fact others might have been (or someday be) better Presidents, but he might be the perfect person to be President *now.* A Tweet by Peter Sagal @petersagal Host of @WaitWait on @NPR. Author of “The Incomplete Book of Running,”

Elections have consequences. Biden within hours of takin the oath of office was able to: revoke Muslim ban, rejoin Paris Climate Agreement, extend federal eviction moratorium, rescind Census orders to exclude non-citizens, preserve/fortify DACA and much more. It’s a new day. A Tweet by Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN Mom, Refugee, Intersectional Feminist, 2017 Top Angler of the Governor’s Fishing Opener and Congresswoman for #MN05. Join me. Minneapolisilhanomar.com

In a Washington DC locked down by National Guard troops, behind high fences crowned with razor wire, Joe Biden became the 46th President of the United States.

Wow! That seemed so incredibly unlikely way back in 1988 when he first ran and lost in the Democratic primary, against Jesse Jackson, Gary Hart, Al Gore, Richard Gephardt, Paul Simon, and Michael Dukakis. It seemed just slightly less likely when he ran in 2008 and lost to Barrack Obama. Even way back in 1965, it couldn’t have seemed very likely when Joe Biden, on their first date, told Neilia Hunter he would be president. Even as late as a year ago, it seemed very unlikely when he came in fourth in the Iowa primary, but Biden persevered. He is tenacious. That tenacity, coupled with his deeply felt compassion and real love for the United States, makes him, I think, the best guy for the rough job that lies ahead.

During the primaries, Joe Biden was at the bottom of my wish list, but, today, I am feeling very optimistic. Thrilled, even. The day’s passion and Biden’s love for country brought me to tears several times, starting, actually, the night before the Inauguration with the remembrance ceremony for the Covid-19 Dead.

For a long time, I’ve been saying – I think saying, thinking, anyway – that we need a Roosevelt type president. Somebody who came from within the establishment but is not so lost in the bubble that they don’t understand the world outside Washington. To quote myself from 2013, As much as Obama – and Clinton – wanted to make a change when they became President, they found themselves in a world that they knew of more than knew and, even if they were critical when running, it is a world they admired and wanted to fit in. True, it was a world they thought they knew, but only from the outside, it is not a world they inhabited. It is a world they have been conditioned – for lack of a better word – to fit into. It is also a world, in which it was very easy to be intimidated when they actually got there. That will not be President Biden’s problem and, like Roosevelt – both Roosevelts, really – he promises to be willing to buck inside the beltway group-think.

I was concerned that Biden was too old and too stuck in his ways to meet the colossal number of problems facing the country. The first hint that Biden is up to the job, came at the Democratic Convention in August and it continued with the Biden Inauguration on Wednesday. Both were conducted in the strange environment of a National Lockdown and both met the challenge. It is telling, to my way of thinking, that both were met with a dexterity from the Biden Campaign/Administration that showed a willingness to adapt to reality rather than try to deny it. Both were innovated and fresh and it showed that Biden is willing to innovate and listen to younger and more expert voices. What came across to me, strangely, watching our Capitol under military lockdown with razor wire on the top of new fences, is how this new Administration feels more feminine, in the best of ways, open, empathic, and compassionate. As importantly, the new President, Joe Biden, seems like a genuinely warm guy who has been tested by some very rough times. These are indeed rough times and I think that Joe Biden is what the country wants and needs right now.