* “This (omicron)variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic.”–President Joe Biden.
* The Department of Labor will officially raise the hourly minimum wage to $15 an hour for employees on federal contracts beginning Jan. 22. It follows through on President Joe Biden’s executive order in April.
* Presidential precedent. “As the president heads into his second year, a lot of the magic is gone and the politics of optimism has fallen on hard times.” No, that wasn’t some dismissive Foxster inveighing against President Joe Biden. That was New York Times journalist—and now a PBS producer—Hedrick Smith assessing the first (recession-impacted) year of President Ronald Reagan.
* Hopefully, Congress has returned from the Thanksgiving week off to accomplish something we can be thankful for. How about raising the debt ceiling and avoiding a default, averting a government shutdown, passing a serious social safety net bill and maybe even getting rid of the filibuster and doing something about voting rights.
* It’s expected that Sen. Elizabeth Warren, 72, will run for another term in 2024. Meanwhile, her role now, it seems, is moving President Joe Biden farther left.
* “It’s clear that Biden could be doing a better job at the border. It is not enough of a priority.”–Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke, who lives there—and has announced his candidacy for Texas governor.
* As we’ve seen,President Biden’s numbers have been tanking into the 40s since Afghanistan. Economic growth is up, unemployment is down, but pandemic- and supply-chain-impacted inflation is notably much higher than we’ve been used to. And, no, this is not the FDR electorate.
But, for context, some other prominent world leaders have been dealing with serious popularity declines as well. To wit: Canada’s Justin Trudeau: 41 percent approval; France’s Emmanuel Macron: 40 percent; and Britain’s Boris Johnson, 32 percent.