Better than Trump by every metric, yes.
Good enough to get us where we need to be and pull us out of our national tailspin, no.
But more promises kept than Trump at the same point during his presidency.
“ For Obama, we tracked 502 promises. During his first year in office, Obama earned a Promise Kept on about 18% of his promises, a Compromise on about 7%, either a Stalled or a Promise Broken on about 20%, and an In the Works on just over half.
In other words, Biden has done modestly worse than Obama in fully or partly keeping his promises, but a bit better than Obama in avoiding Stalled or Broken promises during the first 12 months in office.
Meanwhile, during Trump’s first year in office, when we tracked roughly the same number of promises as we are with Biden, he earned a Promise Kept on about 9% of his promises, a Compromise on about 6%, either a Stalled or a Promise Broken on 39%, and an In the Works on about 46%.
So Biden has been somewhat more successful than Trump in keeping his promises, though not dramatically so. Biden has managed to keep modestly more promises than Trump did, and he saw fewer promises move to the Stalled or Broken categories.
“Biden has been above average in achievements during his first year, given the partisan division in Congress,” said John Frendreis, an emeritus political science professor at Loyola University Chicago. “Pundits and activists like to describe the current situation as Democratic control of both the legislative and executive branches, but this is really not true. The 50-50 split in the Senate only gives the Democrats ‘control’ in a limited set of circumstances.”
Particularly given his narrow margins in Congress, Biden overall can claim a “solid record” for a first year in office, Frendreis said.”
