Power & Security, United States So Far So Good? Biden Hopes So.

Perry World House Visiting Fellow John Gans reviews a new book about the Biden presidency for the New York Times.

Just 10 months into his presidency, Joe Biden was chatting with other national leaders on the sidelines of a United Nations conference when one counterpart asked how he was doing. “There’s this old joke,” said the 46th president, according to Chris Whipple in “The Fight of His Life.” “A guy jumps off a 100-story building. As he passes the 50th floor, they ask him how he’s doing.” Biden continued, “And he says, ‘So far so good.’”

In this feat of a book, Whipple, a documentary filmmaker and the author of previous works on White House chiefs of staff and C.I.A. directors, assesses the Biden presidency at the halfway point of his first, and perhaps only, term. How Whipple measures the president’s progress — so far, in the author’s estimation, it’s better than good — matters a bit less than Whipple’s own accomplishment: publishing a serviceable second draft of history less than two years after Biden took the oath of office.

Read more in the New York Times >>