Biden brings compassion, centrism and a big-time vaccine promise at CNN town hall

As he gently told a traumatized 8-year-old girl, "Don't be scared, honey. Don't be scared," Joe Biden showed that the days of presidential pandemic denial and indifference to America's suffering are over.

His reassuring words to second grader Layla Salas came during a CNN town hall in Wisconsin on Tuesday night when he also tried to move the nation on from the divisive aftermath of the impeachment trial of the predecessor he referred to as "the former guy."

"For four years, all that's been in the news is Trump. The next four years, I want to make sure all the news is the American people. I'm tired of talking about Trump," Biden said, depriving the ex-President of the attention he craves.

That particular moment emphasized Biden's chosen position in the center of American politics where he won the election. His unwillingness to seek public revenge against his just-impeached predecessor, or to join other prominent Democrats in vociferously condemning the Republican senators who voted to acquit former President Donald Trump over the US Capitol insurrection, may disappoint more radical members of his own party. But with his restraint, Biden practiced what he has preached: an effort to bring a fractured nation together and to ensure that political disagreements don't become "uncivil wars."

In these two answers, the President took care of the politics of his prime time appearance in which he needed to show compassion for a country demoralized by a year-long battle against the virus and to lead it out of Trump's dark shadow.

The President also offered some hope -- with a specific promise against which he will be judged -- for 600 million doses of vaccine to be available by the end of July.