The Trump Line

In baseball, there is something called “The Mendoza Line.” It’s derivation is from a guy who was once a major league shortstop named, Mario Mendoza. He was such a horrible hitter that the standard for batting incompetence is now measured against his sad skills. Most often, the Line is set at a .200 batting average, even though Mendoza himself actually had a career average of .215 (not fair, but it made him famous) Regardless of the number, “The Mendoza Line” is simply the threshold for measuring the bare minimum of batting ability. Major League hitters who fail to reach that level are legitimately considered laughing stocks.

The past four years have given us the Presidential equivalent of the Mendoza Line. It’s the “Trump Line.” From now on, the bare minimum of Presidential competence will be measured by whether it reaches the laughable level of our soon- to-be ex-President. If future Presidents fail to reach even that level of ghastly performance, those Chief Executives must be considered historical equivalents of garbage. 

But, that does not mean that merely exceeding the Trump Line will make you a Presidential success any more than merely exceeding the Mendoza Line gets you into the Hall of Fame. For this reason, we have to avoid comparing our soon-to-be President Biden against our possibly soon-to-be imprisoned one. Biden should not be given passes on things simply because they come on the heels of our country’s greatest heel.

Biden isn’t in office yet so there isn’t much to either criticize or praise. He has, though, named a lot of his advisors.  While his choices are surely better than the Clown Car that Trump gave us, there are some in the crowd whose choice has to raise some questions about how well they will ultimately do. This is not to say that they will surely be unable to climb enough above the Trump Line to be considered successful. Unlike the Trump Team, they seem smart and talented. It’s just that there are indications that success may be a struggle.

For example, it seems that a Cabinet Member should have expertise in the Agency they are about to head. Does Xavier Becerra know much about Health and Human Services? He was the Attorney General of California and there are a lot of sick people there, but is that enough? After all, we do have a pretty serious health problem going on right now. Just spit-balling here, but maybe a doctor would have been a better choice? And how about Mayor Pete to control the country’s Transportation? He seems to be a really good guy, but even though South Bend must have a lot of buses, that doesn’t seem to be enough. What about Jennifer Granholm as the Energy Czar? Is that because they make cars in Michigan where she used to be Governor and cars use energy? That seems a stretch.  (By the way, speaking of Jennifer stretching, if you haven’t yet seen it, I suggest you go on YouTube and check out sweet little Jen as a 19 year-old struggling actress appearing on The Dating Game. She was smokin’!!!)

Finally, there is Brian Deese, Biden’s pick for his top economic adviser. He comes from that public policy bastion of good government – the mutual fund giant, Black Rock investments. Yes, he invested heavily in environmental business, but Black Rock is also the major owner of Smith & Wesson.

In sum, are these people better than Trump’s buffoon bunch? Of course. Is that enough? No. These people, and the rest of the Biden team, may turn out to exceed the Trump Line but that can’t be our standard. They must exceed it by a lot otherwise they are not worthy of our congratulations. That is, of course, unless you would welcome this assessment of your own performance: “Congratulations. You weren’t the worst.”