Why Biden Can’t Embrace Covid Normality

Joe Biden was the candidate of normality who hasn’t been able to deliver it, particularly on the pandemic.

This is not entirely his fault, obviously. He didn’t create the Delta and Omicron surges. Neither did he — or most anyone else — foresee that the vaccines wouldn’t prevent infections as advertised.

On Covid, though, as on much else, he has been trapped by a commitment to his political base and by a reflexive opposition to everything associated with Donald Trump into an endless emergency posture that isn’t wearing well with time.

Everyone agrees now — after the flameouts of initial efforts to pass Build Back Better and of the attempt to trash the Senate filibuster — that Biden needs a political reset. His looming Supreme Court pick will presumably provide a much-needed win but is unlikely to move the needle much. It’s on the pandemic that Biden has, in theory, an opportunity to change course in a significant way.