James Buchanan
James Buchanan

Back to Delaware. Joe Biden entered the White House four years ago, fashioning himself as the second coming of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, America’s most consequential president since Abraham Lincoln.

It was a bad mistake. We weren’t looking for another FDR. All America wanted was a leader to guide the country through the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, and restore the decency in the White House that was debased by Donald Trump.

We wanted a low-key president, who wasn’t in the national spotlight 24/7. America wanted to occasionally ask ourselves, “Gee, I wonder what president Biden is up to these days?“

We wanted Uncle Joe from Scranton to make the White House normal again.

Biden is now leaving Washington, mimicking Dwight Eisenhower who warned America against the rise of “the military-industrial complex.”

In his farewell address on Jan. 15, Biden cited “the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country.”

Eisenhower left office as a two-term president. Biden exits after aborting a re-election campaign, and complaining that “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation.”

His media team contributed to that misinformation by covering up Biden’s cognitive decline until it was exposed to all during his only debate with Trump.

Breaking his promise of being a bridge to the future as a one-term president is Biden’s legacy.

The failure to step aside in time for another Democrat to mount a campaign for the presidency led to the return of Trump, whom Biden had called a threat to democracy, to power.

That is his legacy, far overshadowing any legislative and foreign policy achievements.

Biden hopes that future historians will take a kinder view of his time in office.

James Buchanan, arguably America’s worst president, had a similar hope.

In his March 4, 1857 inaugural address, the 15th president called slavery “happily, a matter of little practical importance.”

While in office, the bachelor president remained in denial about the possibility of southern state secession. He failed to supply Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor when it was under bombardment by Confederate artillery.

Seven states left the Union during the three months that lame-duck president Buchanan served as he waited for Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861.

Buchanan thought history would be kind to him. “History will vindicate my memory from every unjust aspersion,” he said in 1868.

It hasn’t worked out that way. Maybe Joe will have better luck.

Three cheers for DEI. The PR community should give Costco CEO Ron Vachris a pat on the back for his strong defense of diversity, equity, inclusion programming.

While companies like Deere & Co., Meta, Microsoft, Ford Motor, Alphabet, Lowe’s and Harley-Davidson ditch or scale back DEI efforts, Costco stands tall.

The membership big-box store company has rejected a shareholder proposal slated for the Jan. 23 annual meeting that calls for a report about the litigation, reputational and financial risks associated with DEI.

Costco believes DEI enhances its capacity to attract and retain employees who will help the business succeed.

“As membership diversifies, we believe that serving it with a diverse group of employees enhances satisfaction,” said Costco in response to the shareholder proposal.

A diverse group of employees “helps bring originality and creativity to our merchandise offerings, promoting the ‘treasure hunt’ that our customers value.”

That group also helps to provide insights into the tastes and preferences of members.

Costco also believes “many of its members like to see themselves reflected in the people in our warehouses with whom they interact.”

A probe into the risks of DEI would be a waste of corporate resources, according to Costco.

It’s refreshing to see a high-profile company like Costco stand up for what it believes in.

It would have been very easy to cave as other “titans” of Corporate America have done at even the slightest challenge to their DEI programs.

Hit the road, Jack. BCT Partners, a Jersey consulting firm that designs DEI programs among other services, has apologized on its X platform for a video shot outside of its office of a staffer “making highly offensive and misogynistic statements.”

That man has been identified online as Ryan Caldwell, who was a business analyst at BCT.

The offensive video, which was viewed more than 31M times, shows Caldwell tossing crude insults at a woman wearing a jersey of the visiting Green Bay Packers during the Jan. 12 wild-card game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

BCT Partners

Caldwell is now banned forever from events at at Lincoln Financial Field.

BCT said the now-fired staffer’s “conduct and language were vile, disgusting, unacceptable and horrific and have no place in our workplace and society.”

But at the same time, it stressed that it can condemn the actions without condemning the individual because none of us deserve to be remembered for actions taken on our worst day.

“We have offered grace and support to our former employee. We hope that he will grow and we all can learn from this deeply disturbing incident. That's what real inclusion is and does,” said BCT.

Is BCT, which is committed to gender equity, going to re-hire the lout?

The Eagles, by the way, beat the Packers by a score of 22-10.