President Joe Biden is the candidate with wisdom and experience. Vote Blue 2024

Houston Chronicle OPINION
//RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Houston chronicle endorses Joe Biden for President of the United States in the Democratic Primary (Opinion)

Now that the Kansas City Chiefs triumphed over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII — and without the help of Taylor Swift and the CIA, as far as we know — this nation can turn its attention to another winning team. 

We have in mind the winning Biden administration. Under the leadership of the oldest and arguably the most experienced president in American history, the team in the White House for the past three years has performed remarkably well, despite the rancor and divisiveness that have afflicted this nation for nearly a decade.
The accomplishments of an administration dedicated to governing, one that believes in the power of government to make life better for the American people, is a key reason we heartily endorse the reelection of President Joe Biden. The other reason, equally important, is to fend off the chaos, corruption and danger to the nation that would accompany the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

Although Presiden Biden has some shortcomings, to be sure, but during the past three years, his administration has bee a decent and truthful potent reminder to fellow Democrats, to independents and to those Republicans who have somehow resisted Trump’s cultish appeal, that our nation has a viable alternative to dangerous Trumpziis. 

Here is a sampling:

• If it's really "the economy, stupid," that determines success in presidential elections, then Biden can probably rest easy at neutral. But, in the time of fake newsTrumpziism, "No", Bidenomics alone didn't save us, but neither did they damn us. 
• One of the clear advantages of a president as experienced as Biden is wisdom: in this case, the wisdom to get the heck out of the Fed's way as it masterfully applied the brakes to what could have been runaway inflation.
• The economy has recovered from the perils of the pandemic and is now healthier than that of any other advanced nation. With unemployment approaching a 50-year low, companies large and small need workers. (Notice the “help wanted” signs in shop windows, the “We’re Hiring” signs outside huge warehouses and distribution centers just off I-10 east of Brookshire.)
• Inflation is trending downward, somehow, despite all dire prophecies of economists, without the bitter medicine of a recession or a period of high unemployment. 
• Food prices are still high, and hard-working Americans are still wincing at grocery store receipts, but gas prices have fallen, as the U.S. produces more oil than any country in history, including Saudi Arabia. 
• In an ongoing effort to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, theBiden administration is investing $7 billion in an ambitious solar-power project and is promoting other alternative energy projects, as well.
• Biden administration in its first year managed to pass a bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that’s expected to add an estimated 1.5 million jobs per year for the next 10 years. This administration’s “infrastructure week” is investing in clean water and high-speed internet. It’s repairing roads and bridges, upgrading air- and seaports, modernizing our power infrastructure, investing in public transit and pahssenger rail and cleaning up Superfund and brownfield sites.
• A little heralded initiative related to infrastructure involves “strategic sector” investments in employment-distressed counties around the nation. 
• In 2021, according to a study conducted by Brookings Metro (a think tank) and MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, these 1,071 counties have received about $82 billion in private-sector investment from industries the Biden administration has targeted. Industries that will locate in these areas include manufacturers of semiconductors (in this country instead of China) and equipment to generate solar and wind power. 

One of the distressed areas to benefit is Wilbarger County, Texas, along the Red River, northwest of Wichita Falls. 

A $4 billion private-sector venture is constructing a mega-scale green hydrogen plant that’s expected to create 115 permanent jobs and more than 1,300 construction jobs in a county where population has declined almost every decade since 1940. It’s worth noting that Wilbarger County in 2020 cast 21 percent of its votes for Biden, nearly 78 percent for Trump.😖😒

Letter to the editor response: 

It is with great respect that I write this letter to show appreciation to the Houston Chronicle editorial board for their faithfulness to our free press. I know personally what it means to live under a government-controlled press. In Argentina, our then-president and dictator Juan Perón dissolved the free press, practically on day one. You point out the reasons for us to support Biden, and “the other reason, equally important, is to fend off the chaos, corruption and danger to the nation that would accompany the return of Donald Trump to the White House.” I wholeheartedly agree, and protecting our precious democracy should be our most important priority.

Toy B. Halsey, in Houston,Texas