Well Said, Mr. President

It’s not every day you can run a headline like the one above this column. For more than a year your humble correspondent has been urging President Joe Biden to avoid public speaking but must acknowledge that on one subject his commentary has been accurate and helpful. Now let’s hope that his staff doesn’t try to contradict him.

One beautiful gift that American presidents can give to the world is to refuse to pretend that tyrants are the legitimate representatives of the people they rule. This encourages the innocents locked in political prisons and undermines the authority of their jailers. To his credit Mr. Biden is still refusing to pretend when it comes to the chief oppressor of the Chinese people, Xi Jinping.

Mr. Biden’s prose is not always pretty but the White House transcript of his Wednesday evening press conference in