Where exactly does Joe Biden stand politically?

[Obama24]

If you ask the far left (meaning, the Bernie / social democrat left), he's a disappointing center right politician in the mold of Obama or Hillary or Bill Clinton. A sell out to Wall Street. He's the evil guy who authored the '94 crime bill.

If you ask the far right, he's the most "woke" President ever who is happily tearing down western society. He's doing everything Obama wished he could do. He's the divider in chief. He's Prince of Woke, the Grand Poobah of DEI. On the far right, he's both a senile man who doesn't know what day it is and isn't in charge, but also somehow a supervillain playing 4D chess and basically is America's Tito or Castro.

Both of the above are things I've seen shared in echo chambers of each viewpoint.

This administration, even from my viewpoint as a left libertarian, has been tough to figure out, truthfully. There is so much disinformation from both sides and getting information is a lot more fragmented than it used to be.

When Obama was President it was obvious that we had a center left guy in office who had to make many compromises with the far right. It was understood what Obama stood for.

It was very clear that Bush was what he sold himself as a "compassionate conservative." He was just an idiot and a naive guy who had a lot of evil people in his ear.

But one day Biden will say something that will piss off the far left. Then the next he'll pander to the academic left. Then he'll talk about raising tariffs. Then he'll go as far left as Bernie and say let's hit the rich with the biggest tax ever. Then he'll do some more pandering to the academic left.

It's actually really hard to tell where he actually stands or what his administration actually stands for. It at times seems a bit schizophrenic.

I was hoping we could have a measured and mature discussion of it - where he and his administration are politically and what they stand for.

And as a discussion flowing from the first, what does a second term, if he gets one, look like?

[MarkD]

Here is how I describe the ideology of Joe Biden
https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=368572.0

[Thank you for being a friend...]

He's a liberal.  He supports Social Security, Medicare, the SNAP program, high and generous funding levels in education, health care... he's also very pro-union.  He's to me, just a liberal Democrat on ideology.  I think that for a lot of his career that word "liberal" (or "librul") was something you couldn't be or didn't want to be, because that word has and still has a negative connotation to so many people.

Even Donald Trump is not really that different from other conservative Republicans in the basic policy positions.  Basically in 2024, you have a choice between a liberal vision and a conservative vision and I'm talking about the federal government - the kinds of people that they will appoint.  It's in many ways an original argument about the size and scope of federal power, and also want government can and should do, and also how to spend money and on whom/what.

[Vice President Christian Man]

I think he's a centrist at heart who has been pressured by progressives who are unaware of how unpopular some of their policy positions are, and leftists who are unlikely to support and vote for him in the first place. He should be getting his advice from someone like Obama who managed to win despite previously trailing Romney or better yet a veteran like Carville. Even someone like Bill Maher who has no political experience appears to have better instincts.

[Frodo]

Center left, broadly speaking.  He is probably the last in the line of DLC-style presidents (and presidential nominees) starting with Bill Clinton in 1992, given his White House Deputy Chief of Staff is Bruce Reed, formerly the CEO of the now-defunct Democratic Leadership Council.  Once Biden goes either in January 2025 or January 2029, progressives are going to have a much greater role in determining the next Democratic presidential nominee.  

[Mr. Smith]

Wherever he needs to, albeit without far-right trappings. Only LBJ might be more opportunistic for Democrats.

[Obama24]

I think he's a centrist at heart who has been pressured by progressives who are unaware of how unpopular some of their policy positions are, and leftists who are unlikely to support and vote for him in the first place. He should be getting his advice from someone like Obama who managed to win despite previously trailing Romney or better yet a veteran like Carville. Even someone like Bill Maher who has no political experience appears to have better instincts.

If Biden did this, take advice from Obama, Carville, Maher or even Bill Clinton, and was moderating a bit for this election, I'd be much more enthusiastic to vote for him. As long as he didn't go full Dick Morris, I'd be satisfied. This wishy washy one day centrist, one day academic leftist, one day identity politics, the next centrist, it's a turn off.