In town hall, Biden returns to normalcy

[Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( Get Jonathan Bernstein’s newsletter every morning in your inbox. [Click here to subscribe.]( President Joe Biden appeared on CNN Thursday night in a [town-hall format](, taking questions from the audience and from Anderson Cooper. As is [usually the case]( with this kind of event, he received only substantive policy questions, rather than the politics and process questions that reporters, especially in the White House press corps, usually ask. It’s a good format for Biden. He’s not nearly as good at explaining complex policy proposals as Bill Clinton was, but he’s at least as good as either President Bush — and of course there’s a contrast between all of those presidents and Donald Trump, who rarely gave the impression of having any idea what he was talking about when asked policy questions. What Biden is good at, of course, is performing empathy, and answering policy questions from citizens plays well to that strength. Biden’s weakness, on the other hand, has always been a lack of message discipline, and a 90-minute time slot gave him plenty of opportunity for straying off topic, saying goofy things, and getting stuff flat-out wrong. He’s not the first president who’s had that problem; Ronald Reagan’s staff had plenty of practice walking back things that the president “misspoke” about in unscripted appearances. And that’s to say nothing of Trump. But don’t expect such appearances to have major effects on a president’s popularity or influence. Popularity responds much more to events — a strong or weak economy, highly visible policy successes or failures — than to whether the president gives inspiring speeches or commits gaffes in an interview. As far as influence, there’s really not much any president can say publicly to convince a reluctant senator to go along with his agenda; that’s just not how it works. Which doesn’t mean these sessions are unimportant. They’re part of the process of representation — how presidents explain what they’re doing in office with reference to what they promised during the campaign. For Biden, that’s always about [reconciling his promises]( to return to normalcy after Trump’s presidency, while also pushing an aggressive liberal agenda. Answering questions from the press and from citizens is both part of being a normal president and a way to connect policy actions with campaign promises. It’s worth noting that Biden barely mentioned Republicans during the town hall. He mentioned the Democrats who disagree with him, Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, several times, but he mostly refrained from attacking the other party for opposing the programs he discussed. (He did refer to Trump a few times, and not favorably, but the criticisms were pretty mild.) His target audience this time seemed to be Democrats frustrated by lack of progress on his policy agenda more than it was the nation as a whole. Biden has taken some heat from the press for mostly [avoiding]( in-depth, one-on-one interviews. He’s done a fairly [normal number of press conferences](, and takes questions from White House reporters on plenty of other brief occasions. This is the third CNN town hall he’s done. Overall, I’d say it’s healthy for presidents to use a variety of different formats, but in reality most of them wind up giving the press less than they want, and like Biden they wind up specializing in the formats that play to their strengths. So: This town hall won’t change much for Biden, but all of these events are part of the normal responsibilities of the presidency — and it is important that presidents carry such things out. 1. Adeel Malik and Jamal Ibrahim Haidar at the Monkey Cage on [economic troubles in Lebanon](. 2. Bridget Dooling on the [employer vaccine mandate](. 3. My Bloomberg Opinion colleague Clara Ferreira Marques on [China, Africa and the vaccine](. 4. Fred Kaplan on [North Korea](. 5. Geoffrey Skelley on [Biden’s declining approval ratings](. 6. And my Bloomberg Opinion colleague Matt Levine on [Trump’s latest venture](. Get Early Returns every morning in your inbox. [Click here to subscribe](. Also subscribe to [Bloomberg All Access]( and get much, much more. You’ll receive our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, the Bloomberg Open and the Bloomberg Close. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Early Returns newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022