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Some may still remember the nickname that the (in this respect very creative) 45th President invented for Joe Biden: "Sleepy Joe", Donald Trump called him, the sleepy Josef.
Even his followers actually expected nothing more from Biden than a return to normalcy, to the status quo ante.
A middle-class candidate who should reverse Trump's policy.
Back on the go.
Anyone who followed Biden's policy during the first two weeks in office knows: That was a fallacy.
Its aim is far-reaching reforms that go far beyond the expected compromise policy.
The spirit of the former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt hovers over his actions, whose policies in the 1930s ushered in a radical change in American economic, social and political history.
What Biden is now trying to do - with the pandemic in the background - is nothing less than a New Deal for the 21st century.
Biden's inaugural speech already made people sit up and take notice: He spoke of a 400-year-old “cry for justice between the races” that finally had to be heard, about the fight against “domestic terror”, the fight against lies, and the renewal of American democracy.
Then there was the not-so-subtle signal that Biden had a large Roosevelt portrait hung in the Oval Office of the White House.
"This is the day of democracy"
Joe Biden has been sworn in as the 46th US President, succeeding Donald Trump.
In his inaugural address, Biden emphasized, "I will be president for all Americans." See his address here.
Source: WORLD
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One of its most ambitious companies is immigration.
It was not until Tuesday that he signed three rulings, pushing the move away from Trump's isolationism from migrants.
But Biden wants more: a far-reaching immigration reform, like the one that Barack Obama failed.
Migration, climate protection and the fight against corona
Nobody knows exactly how many immigrants without visas and work permits - mostly from Latin America - live in the United States, many speak of eleven million.
Biden would like to enable these people to find a way out of illegality within eight years.
You should be able to apply for green cards and ultimately become American citizens with all rights and obligations.
Biden is also committed to protecting the climate.
As soon as he was in power, he finished expanding the Keystone pipeline and snubbed the Canadian government.
The pipeline was to extend from the Canadian province of Alberta to the heart of America, across South Dakota and Nebraska.
The project has always been controversial.
Environmentalists and members of the Lakota nation opposed it from the start, while the majority of South Dakota voters were in favor.
The fact that Biden immediately stopped the expansion of the pipeline came as a shock to many.
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It was nothing more than the fulfillment of a campaign promise: The fight against climate change is his top priority.
This can also be seen in the fact that Biden created a new position - the position of "Special Envoy of the President on Climate" - and filled it with former Secretary of State John Kerry.
On his first day in office, he also signed a presidential decree that the United States would rejoin the Paris Agreement on Climate Protection.
The United States will be a club member again on February 19.
The next project that Biden has tackled is very popular with the population: He wants to give Americans a financial support so that they can survive the next few months economically.
He also plans to spend billions of dollars to vaccinate the majority of Americans against Covid by summer.
The previous government had sponsored pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines - but there was no trace of a plan as to how these vaccines should get into the arms of the citizens.
He will probably be able to keep his promise to inoculate a hundred million vaccine doses in his first hundred days in office.
But is that enough?
All virus mutations - the British, the South African, the Brazilian, and probably also a few homemade ones - have long been on the road in America, but nobody knows how many.
Biden's cabinet is colorful - like the USA
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Biden's ambition can also be seen in the way he fills the positions he can assign.
Many commentators point primarily to the number of blacks, Latinos, Asians and women the president has appointed to his cabinet - but actually all there is to note on this issue is that the government is finally starting to make the colorfulness of the real to reflect existing America.
Much more important is the following observation: Biden has not put a single Wall Street banker into a position of power.
His new Treasury Secretary, for example, is not a billionaire, but a former Fed President Janet Yellen, who is widely valued for her expertise.
A close associate of the progressive Elizabeth Warren has appointed Biden as her deputy.
Another interesting persona: Merrick Garland will lead the Justice Department under Biden.
Some see it as just a retreat against the Republicans, especially Senator Mitch McConnell, who blocked Garland's path to the Supreme Court in 2016.
Indeed, Garland is a high profile lawyer who should be able to restore the independence of the Justice Department.
At the same time, Biden showed that he did not want to be pushed to the left.
There was no place in his cabinet for the democratic socialist Bernie Sanders or Warren.
Instead you saw many faces that you already knew from the time of Obama.
From the left, the wing of the party around MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is already beginning to insult Biden.
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It is not the only difficulty that arises.
From the right, he will be pressured by Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, who is a Democrat but often allies with his Republican colleagues.
There is also no telling how President Biden will whip his reforms to expand the electoral law (maintaining postal votes, removing restrictions on voting options for blacks and Latinos) through the Senate without abolishing the filibuster - that arcane rule of procedure thanks to which the Republicans Senators can block any bill.
Biden still faces tough fights.
But for a president who was mistaken by opponents and friends for a tired old man who would bring nothing new to America, his initial record is remarkable.