United States President Donald Trump is out after one term. Third time lucky and two-term vice-president under the Barack Obama administration, 77-year-old Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is back in the White House, this time as the 46th president of the US.
He will be inaugurated in January 2021. I congratulate his good fortune and hope he brings class and credibility back to the Oval Office. The US media has often called his predecessor as spending more time tweeting than governing the country.
Biden served as vice-president under Obama from 2009 to 2017. Obama once said about Biden: "The best thing about Joe is that when we get everybody together, he really forces people to think and defend their positions, to look at things from every angle, and that is very valuable for me."
Among lawyers, we call this "playing the Devil's Advocate". Biden ran for the Democratic presidential nomination twice, in 1988 and in 2008, but failed.
He is third time lucky this year. In June, he was chosen as the Democratic Party's candidate to unseat Trump.
On Aug 11, he announced Senator Kamala Harris of California as his running mate. Last weekend, he defeated Trump, the first sitting president to lose re-election since George Bush (senior) in 1992. Biden had been accused (more than once) of "inappropriate contact" with women at public events. In response, he described himself as a "tactile politician" and admitted this behaviour had caused trouble for him in the past.
In his first tweet on Satuday as a president-elect, Biden said: "America, I'm honoured that you have chosen me to lead our great country. The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a president for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not."
In a victory speech later in Delaware, Biden repeated his commitment to be a leader for all. Urging the country to unite, he added: "It's time to stop treating our opponents like they're our enemies. They are not our enemies. They are Americans."
He also said he would soon appoint a group of scientists and experts as transition advisers to help his administration fight the coronavirus pandemic.
For many observers, the big question is: "What will be the most significant changes we can expect from the new Biden administration?". The following are some preliminary suggestions.
The new Biden administration should rebuild alliances, win back the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's trust, provide clarity on its China policy, revitalise the economy, form stronger African ties, revisit Middle East policies, work with Latin American allies, build stronger relationships with Europe, including Turkey, and make climate change a national priority ("Joe Biden just won the presidency: What does that mean for America's role in the world?", as seen on https://www.atlanticcouncil.org).
A US news portal (https://foreignpolicy.com) said that while Beijing might appreciate a less erratic US administration, it should not expect Biden to be "more pliable".
In its commentary on Biden's victory, the BBC portal stated: "The world, according to President Trump, has been one of 'America First' nationalism, ditching international agreements that he believed gave the US a raw deal.
"It was transactional, disruptive and unilateralist. It was also personal and erratic, shaped by his gut feelings and relationships with leaders, and driven by his Twitter feed."
The BBC hopes that under Biden, past mistakes will be corrected, strained relationships repaired and the US will rejoin global alliances. The Guardian portal stated even if Biden had won a landslide victory and the Democrats controlled the Senate, the US power in the world has been "much diminished" because Trump has done "untold damage to its international reputation".
The portal added, however, that in view of Biden's "immense personal foreign policy experience", there is hope for a future relationship between the US and the rest of the world.
As for Professor Huang of the Beijing Language and Culture University, he hopes that Biden "will forgo US unilateralism" because it had done substantial damage to its global standing. He hopes both the US and China will build up a proper mechanism for crisis management ("What a Biden victory means for China", https://asia.nikkei.com).
For us, the question is how will Biden's victory affect Malaysia?
The writer, a former federal counsel at the Attorney-General's Chambers, is deputy chairman of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
