Who specifically are Biden’s supposed handlers? I hear this stated from many folks both on this forum and in person, and I would like some clarity on this.
Every POTUS (every senior govt official for that matter) has an extensive staff.. whose actual job is to keep him advised, tell him what to say, not to say, how to say it, etc.. its impossible to keep 100% up to date on every possible matter in the world.. to include the biggest topics of the day (there is far more to the Israel conflict for example than what we see on the news, can capture through Reddit, Twitter, etc.. even if we absorbed all the open source intelligence information available)... so POTUS relies on his team to be knowledgeable, tell him what he needs to know, tell him the most appropriate action to take, etc...
Which is why its incredibly important to pick a world class group of both formal and informal advisors, have a top 1% chief of staff to keep the chaos of the 24/7/365 shitstorm of the world and the team of people there to keep POTUS abreast of it all in line and moving in the right direction, etc...
Some POTUS tend to lean heavily on their team and follow their guidance and direction tightly (younger Bush was a very good example.. Reagan leaned heavily on his team as well... as did Clinton)... others tend to call their own shots and not listen much at all (Obama and Trump are both good examples)...
Biden has been known for most of his political career to be more of a mouthpiece than an actual decision maker.. he mastered the art of getting people on board and pushing groups in the direction he wanted them to go while in the senate... but he isnt really known for being the idea guy.. he has a staff for that..
Im pretty sure since that system worked for him for decades before sitting behind the resolute desk.. he hasnt changed it much... and more often than not when youre hearing Bidens position on something (anything).. what youre hearing is the position that was developed for him by others..
A specific example I can give you from past administrations was one that I witnessed personally in the mid 2000's...
Paul Wolfowitz was often considered the big brain among the senior neocons in the Bush administration... when SECDEF, SECSTATE, POTUS, VPOTUS, etc needed someone to develop an opinion or a position on a major issue/item.. he'd often get the call... the conversation would often go something like this... "Hey Paul.... X is happening in Y location... some basic facts are A, B, C, D, and E... put a day into this and call me back and let me know what you think the best move is..."
72 hours later you'd see POTUS, VPOTUS, or some other senior cabinet member on C-Span spouting almost verbatim the position that was developed for them by someone else (wolfowitz)...
FWIW this isnt exclusive to politics...
The military is very similar in how things work... senior flag officers have a fairly large staff and access to extensive resources beyond their staff... they cant possibly know or understand everything about every possible aspect of warfare AND administration/management of large organizations AND regional or theater specific issues AND, AND, AND, etc... so they have people that handle a large amount of this for them... they are the ultimate shot caller (at their level.. often things escalate to the civilian leaders in the pentagon or to the hill).. but are reliant on volumes of information coming from others and on courses of action being developed by others for them to make decisions.. and obviously the people developing those COA and providing information have their own agendas their own biases, etc...
Im the CEO of a reasonably sized (mid market) firm... there is no way I can know everything there is to know about every functional area of my business, despite being in industry and other related industries my entire adult life.. plus also know everything there is to know about the changes in the regulatory environment, changes in the market, changes in the economy, etc..etc..
I rely heavily on my team of senior and middle managers and executives to tell me whatever it is I need to know and to develop courses of action for me to take to resolve whatever problems the firm needs to deal with...
If they come to me with obviously tainted information or poorly thought out COA's I send them back to the drawing board... or if they dont bring me enough information to make a proper decision I get them to go get the information needed so that decisions can be made...
But ultimately I very much rely upon the team to tell me which way to turn the boat, why to turn the boat the direction I turn it, how much power to throw into the engines, etc..etc.. to navigate the storm... Im just the guy at the helm making those adjustments... there are a whole lot of guys behind the scenes actually telling me what adjustments to make.. I trust them to do that correctly...
If they lose my trust, the leave the organization and I find someone else I can trust... because at the end of the day I am reliant on them "handling" me/our business properly.... Im largely just the guy that takes responsibility when things fail and passes down the glory when things go well... THEY are who are heavily influencing every shot that gets called..
ips-dc.org
