Is it surprising that Joe Biden is breaking with the 44th president and his former boss, Barack Obama?

Not even remotely. Barack Obama and Joe Biden were a great team. They worked together well, Biden filled a number of experience holes in Obama’s C.V., and they liked each other.

But make no mistake: Obama was the President. He set foreign policy, he set domestic policy, and Biden was a proper second to that agenda. But that didn’t necessarily make it fundamentally his agenda.

This is not even slightly a surprise. Whether it’s music, art, engineering, statesmanship, or national policy, you’re applying creative thinking to problem solving. Each artist, each craftsman does it a bit differently, based on their ideas, their life experience, their set of advisors, their knowledge of the subject, knowledge of the world, and anything else you’d like to factor in there.

And yes, I can hear a song, review a PCB layout, check out a treehouse, and simultaneously think “nice job!” and “I would have done it differently.” Leaders can be the same way, too. It’s a mistake to assume that Biden was 1/2 or even an identifiable fraction of the policies of the Obama Administration. He did what Obama asked him to do: he gave his experienced opinion on things, always when asked, certainly sometimes when unasked, but that and a thousand other factors lead to how Obama approached things as President.

As well and of course, sometimes those things were not successful. For example, Obama’s many attempts and making bipartisan deals with the republicans. If two parties honestly have solving a problem as a top priority, but have different beliefs about how to solve the problem, you can always reach some kind of compromise. But if one of the parties, as in the case of the republicans, has set their top priority at ensuring the other party’s failure, and uses the negotiation process simply to sabotage their working solutions as much as possible, then no deal can be possible. Obama was probably surprised the first time or two this happened, but kept trying.

And so just as Obama heeded Biden’s advice without becoming Biden, Biden has learned from his experiences in the Obama Administration without becoming Obama. This is expected behavior. We should expect our leaders to learn, grow, adapt to the present, and watch for the future.

And in one of those learnings, Biden hit the ground refusing to be Charlie Brown to Moscow Mitch McConnell’s Lucy and her football. That already means he’s headed in a different direction than much of Obama’s time in office. And of course, these are different times, and despite wishes pretending to be claims from the other side, Biden seems more than able to adapt to the times we’re in — I was uncertain about his ability here, too. But that is a big part of this — Biden has no interest in being Obama’s third term, or pretending it’s 2016 again. Which is a huge breath of fresh air after that intervening four years of a president intent on bringing us back to a mix of the 1920s and 1950s from an parallel earth that never existed.

It’s perhaps tempting to image that a vice-president elected to the presidency will resurrect his former running mate’s administration. This myth isn’t helped by the fact that vice-presidents, especially modern ones, often populate their administration with people from their previous one. I understand this — I’m working at a company today that hired a bunch of people I knew from previous companies, once I arrived. There’s always some risk in bringing in an unknown. If you have a person who’s proven trustworthy and adept in the past, why not bring them into your new thing? That doesn’t means you’re doing identical work.

By Dave Haynie

Is it surprising that Joe Biden is breaking with the 44th president and his former boss, Barack Obama?

Not even remotely. Barack Obama and Joe Biden were a great team. They worked together well, Biden filled a number of experience holes in Obama’s C.V., and they liked each other.

But make no mistake: Obama was the President. He set foreign policy, he set domestic policy, and Biden was a proper second to that agenda. But that didn’t necessarily make it fundamentally his agenda.

This is not even slightly a surprise. Whether it’s music, art, engineering, statesmanship, or national policy, you’re applying creative thinking to problem solving. Each artist, each craftsman does it a bit differently, based on their ideas, their life experience, their set of advisors, their knowledge of the subject, knowledge of the world, and anything else you’d like to factor in there.

And yes, I can hear a song, review a PCB layout, check out a treehouse, and simultaneously think “nice job!” and “I would have done it differently.” Leaders can be the same way, too. It’s a mistake to assume that Biden was 1/2 or even an identifiable fraction of the policies of the Obama Administration. He did what Obama asked him to do: he gave his experienced opinion on things, always when asked, certainly sometimes when unasked, but that and a thousand other factors lead to how Obama approached things as President.

As well and of course, sometimes those things were not successful. For example, Obama’s many attempts and making bipartisan deals with the republicans. If two parties honestly have solving a problem as a top priority, but have different beliefs about how to solve the problem, you can always reach some kind of compromise. But if one of the parties, as in the case of the republicans, has set their top priority at ensuring the other party’s failure, and uses the negotiation process simply to sabotage their working solutions as much as possible, then no deal can be possible. Obama was probably surprised the first time or two this happened, but kept trying.

And so just as Obama heeded Biden’s advice without becoming Biden, Biden has learned from his experiences in the Obama Administration without becoming Obama. This is expected behavior. We should expect our leaders to learn, grow, adapt to the present, and watch for the future.

And in one of those learnings, Biden hit the ground refusing to be Charlie Brown to Moscow Mitch McConnell’s Lucy and her football. That already means he’s headed in a different direction than much of Obama’s time in office. And of course, these are different times, and despite wishes pretending to be claims from the other side, Biden seems more than able to adapt to the times we’re in — I was uncertain about his ability here, too. But that is a big part of this — Biden has no interest in being Obama’s third term, or pretending it’s 2016 again. Which is a huge breath of fresh air after that intervening four years of a president intent on bringing us back to a mix of the 1920s and 1950s from an parallel earth that never existed.

It’s perhaps tempting to image that a vice-president elected to the presidency will resurrect his former running mate’s administration. This myth isn’t helped by the fact that vice-presidents, especially modern ones, often populate their administration with people from their previous one. I understand this — I’m working at a company today that hired a bunch of people I knew from previous companies, once I arrived. There’s always some risk in bringing in an unknown. If you have a person who’s proven trustworthy and adept in the past, why not bring them into your new thing? That doesn’t means you’re doing identical work.

By Dave Haynie

That sure is a lot of words to say virtually nothing. A general glossing over instead of citing specific instances of where Joe Biden reacted differently than Barak Obama to the challenges of the office. Also no mention of the vast differences that Joe Biden faces in contrast to Barak Obama in terms of what they faced from Republicans.

Barak Obama had huge majorities to work with in the Senate and the House. His biggest problems in the beginning of his Presidency were not the Republicans because they were powerless to stop him. His problems were with the various factions within his own party who all wanted their slice of the spoils.

Joe Biden cannot ignore Republicans like Obama did at the beginning. They have large minorities in both houses that they did not have at the beginning of Obama's regime. That likely is a plus for Biden because he can use the Republican threat to control the left wing lunatics in his own party.

Is it surprising that Joe Biden is breaking with the 44th president and his former boss, Barack Obama?

Not even remotely. Barack Obama and Joe Biden were a great team. They worked together well, Biden filled a number of experience holes in Obama’s C.V., and they liked each other.

But make no mistake: Obama was the President. He set foreign policy, he set domestic policy, and Biden was a proper second to that agenda. But that didn’t necessarily make it fundamentally his agenda.

This is not even slightly a surprise. Whether it’s music, art, engineering, statesmanship, or national policy, you’re applying creative thinking to problem solving. Each artist, each craftsman does it a bit differently, based on their ideas, their life experience, their set of advisors, their knowledge of the subject, knowledge of the world, and anything else you’d like to factor in there.

And yes, I can hear a song, review a PCB layout, check out a treehouse, and simultaneously think “nice job!” and “I would have done it differently.” Leaders can be the same way, too. It’s a mistake to assume that Biden was 1/2 or even an identifiable fraction of the policies of the Obama Administration. He did what Obama asked him to do: he gave his experienced opinion on things, always when asked, certainly sometimes when unasked, but that and a thousand other factors lead to how Obama approached things as President.

As well and of course, sometimes those things were not successful. For example, Obama’s many attempts and making bipartisan deals with the republicans. If two parties honestly have solving a problem as a top priority, but have different beliefs about how to solve the problem, you can always reach some kind of compromise. But if one of the parties, as in the case of the republicans, has set their top priority at ensuring the other party’s failure, and uses the negotiation process simply to sabotage their working solutions as much as possible, then no deal can be possible. Obama was probably surprised the first time or two this happened, but kept trying.

And so just as Obama heeded Biden’s advice without becoming Biden, Biden has learned from his experiences in the Obama Administration without becoming Obama. This is expected behavior. We should expect our leaders to learn, grow, adapt to the present, and watch for the future.

And in one of those learnings, Biden hit the ground refusing to be Charlie Brown to Moscow Mitch McConnell’s Lucy and her football. That already means he’s headed in a different direction than much of Obama’s time in office. And of course, these are different times, and despite wishes pretending to be claims from the other side, Biden seems more than able to adapt to the times we’re in — I was uncertain about his ability here, too. But that is a big part of this — Biden has no interest in being Obama’s third term, or pretending it’s 2016 again. Which is a huge breath of fresh air after that intervening four years of a president intent on bringing us back to a mix of the 1920s and 1950s from an parallel earth that never existed.

It’s perhaps tempting to image that a vice-president elected to the presidency will resurrect his former running mate’s administration. This myth isn’t helped by the fact that vice-presidents, especially modern ones, often populate their administration with people from their previous one. I understand this — I’m working at a company today that hired a bunch of people I knew from previous companies, once I arrived. There’s always some risk in bringing in an unknown. If you have a person who’s proven trustworthy and adept in the past, why not bring them into your new thing? That doesn’t means you’re doing identical work.

By Dave Haynie

While reading the article I was impressed by the fourth paragraph. Remember when Truman was thrown into the Presidency by the death of FDR? At that time Truman had not been treated as an equal or was he truly prepared for taking over and FDR had not informed him of the operation of the war though I am certain Truman was the better qualified as to war than FDR as Truman had served in WWI. Much of the history I have read says he was not up to date on the Bomb which ended the war. I hope we are doing better now but I wonder as I watch Biden doing the same things as my neighbor did as he progressed in Alzheimer's.

While reading the article I was impressed by the fourth paragraph. Remember when Truman was thrown into the Presidency by the death of FDR? At that time Truman had not been treated as an equal or was he truly prepared for taking over and FDR had not informed him of the operation of the war though I am certain Truman was the better qualified as to war than FDR as Truman had served in WWI. Much of the history I have read says he was not up to date on the Bomb which ended the war. I hope we are doing better now but I wonder as I watch Biden doing the same things as my neighbor did as he progressed in Alzheimer's.

Is it surprising that Joe Biden is breaking with the 44th president and his former boss, Barack Obama?

Not even remotely. Barack Obama and Joe Biden were a great team. They worked together well, Biden filled a number of experience holes in Obama’s C.V., and they liked each other.

But make no mistake: Obama was the President. He set foreign policy, he set domestic policy, and Biden was a proper second to that agenda. But that didn’t necessarily make it fundamentally his agenda.

This is not even slightly a surprise. Whether it’s music, art, engineering, statesmanship, or national policy, you’re applying creative thinking to problem solving. Each artist, each craftsman does it a bit differently, based on their ideas, their life experience, their set of advisors, their knowledge of the subject, knowledge of the world, and anything else you’d like to factor in there.

And yes, I can hear a song, review a PCB layout, check out a treehouse, and simultaneously think “nice job!” and “I would have done it differently.” Leaders can be the same way, too. It’s a mistake to assume that Biden was 1/2 or even an identifiable fraction of the policies of the Obama Administration. He did what Obama asked him to do: he gave his experienced opinion on things, always when asked, certainly sometimes when unasked, but that and a thousand other factors lead to how Obama approached things as President.

As well and of course, sometimes those things were not successful. For example, Obama’s many attempts and making bipartisan deals with the republicans. If two parties honestly have solving a problem as a top priority, but have different beliefs about how to solve the problem, you can always reach some kind of compromise. But if one of the parties, as in the case of the republicans, has set their top priority at ensuring the other party’s failure, and uses the negotiation process simply to sabotage their working solutions as much as possible, then no deal can be possible. Obama was probably surprised the first time or two this happened, but kept trying.

And so just as Obama heeded Biden’s advice without becoming Biden, Biden has learned from his experiences in the Obama Administration without becoming Obama. This is expected behavior. We should expect our leaders to learn, grow, adapt to the present, and watch for the future.

And in one of those learnings, Biden hit the ground refusing to be Charlie Brown to Moscow Mitch McConnell’s Lucy and her football. That already means he’s headed in a different direction than much of Obama’s time in office. And of course, these are different times, and despite wishes pretending to be claims from the other side, Biden seems more than able to adapt to the times we’re in — I was uncertain about his ability here, too. But that is a big part of this — Biden has no interest in being Obama’s third term, or pretending it’s 2016 again. Which is a huge breath of fresh air after that intervening four years of a president intent on bringing us back to a mix of the 1920s and 1950s from an parallel earth that never existed.

It’s perhaps tempting to image that a vice-president elected to the presidency will resurrect his former running mate’s administration. This myth isn’t helped by the fact that vice-presidents, especially modern ones, often populate their administration with people from their previous one. I understand this — I’m working at a company today that hired a bunch of people I knew from previous companies, once I arrived. There’s always some risk in bringing in an unknown. If you have a person who’s proven trustworthy and adept in the past, why not bring them into your new thing? That doesn’t means you’re doing identical work.

By Dave Haynie