The accomplishments of an administration dedicated to governing, one that believes in the power of government to make life better for the American people, is a key reason we heartily endorse the reelection of President Joe Biden. The other reason, equally important, is to fend off the chaos, corruption and danger to the nation that would accompany the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

The president has his shortcomings, to be sure, but what his administration has managed to get done during the past three years is a potent reminder to his fellow Democrats, to independents and to those Republicans who have somehow resisted Trump’s cultish appeal that the nation has a viable alternative. Here is a sampling:

If it's really "the economy, stupid," that determines success in presidential elections, then Biden can probably rest easy at neutral. No, Bidenomics alone didn't save us but neither did they damn us. One of the clear advantages of a president as experienced as Biden is wisdom: in this case, the wisdom to get the heck out of the Fed's way as it masterfully applied the breaks to what could have been runaway inflation. ......

We are well aware of Biden’s age, 81, (and Trump’s, 77), as well as memory lapses that have prompted near-panic among many of the president’s fellow Democrats. Those of us who remember the energetic, garrulous, occasionally even eloquent Joe Biden of years past can see the difference a few years have made, even if he was always prone to gaffes. Accounts other than the report of Special Counsel Robert Hur suggest, however, that Biden remains focused, engaged and in command on the vital issues that occupy a president. Experience counts.

We are reassured in large part because Biden has restored the tradition of a capable team running the White House, a tradition trampled by Trump’s deeply flawed scheme to run a one-man show. Like Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt, Biden’s deft management of his team has made him, arguably, the most productive president since LBJ in the early months of his administration.

He has, as they say, forgotten more than his presumed Republican rival will ever know. That's not saying much, and at the same time, it says it all.

The Commercial Division was offering non-recourse loans — that is, loans where the bank could take the mortgaged property in case of a default, but not Trump’s other assets. Meanwhile, the Private Wealth Division was offering much better rates on full recourse loans where Trump had to personally guarantee that the bank would get paid.

How much better? From Engoron’s verdict:

In calculating the interest rate differentials for the perceived credit risks with and without a personal guarantee on the Doral loan, McCarty took the competing loan proposal terms that Deutsche Bank’s commercial real estate group had offered (which was LIBOR + 8% with a floor of LIBOR + 2%, or 10%) and compared them to the terms extended by Deutsche Bank’s Private Wealth Management Division that were contingent upon a personal guarantee from Donald Trump (which was between 1.8% and 4.1%, depending on whether it was pre- or post-renovation). [Emphasis added.]

All he had to do to get those sweet low rates was show that he was rich enough to be worth the risk. And that is where the SFCs come in, because Trump would never have qualified for those preferential rates if he’d been honest about his wealth and the real value of his cash reserves.....

Using McCarty’s formula and circumscribing the time period to comply with the statute of limitations, the court calculated a “reasonable approximation of the ill-gotten interest rate savings” for four loans:

$72,908,308 from 2014-2022 on the Doral loan;

$53,423,209 from 2015-2022 on the Old Post Office loan;

$17,443,359 from 2014-2022 on the Chicago loan; and

$24,265,291 from 2015-2022 on the 40 Wall Street loan.

And whether Deutsche Bank and the other lenders are complaining about it or not, that is money that Trump got from them by committing fraud. So if the question is, “Who was harmed here?” the answer is very clearly the lenders, who missed out on tens of millions of dollars they would have collected had Trump paid an interest rate commensurate with the actual level of risk the banks took when they loaned money to him......

Less tangibly, but no less importantly, is the damage that this persistent fraud does to the marketplace itself. Put simply, lying about your creditworthiness makes it more difficult for lenders to price risk, and so they have to charge a higher premium to everybody.

“Timely and total repayment of loans does not extinguish the harm that false statements inflict on the marketplace. Indeed, the common excuse that ‘everybody does it’ is all the more reason to strive for honesty and transparency and to be vigilant in enforcing the rules,” the judge wrote. “Here, despite the false financial statements, it is undisputed that defendants have made all required payments on time; the next group of lenders to receive bogus statements might not be so lucky.”

Donald Trump has long seen himself as a president of enormous historical significance — to the point that he inquired about being added to Mt. Rushmore just six months into his term.

Evidently, scholars studying the American president agree that the Republican was historically significant, but not in the way he hoped. NPR reported:

The 2024 edition of the Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey has [incumbent President Joe] Biden in 14th place, just ahead of Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan. Trump comes in 45th, behind fellow impeachee Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan, the perennial cellar-dweller in such ratings due to his pre-Civil War leadership.

......And here’s the bottom 10:

36. Herbert Hoover

37. John Tyler

38. Zachary Taylor

39. Millard Fillmore

40. Warren G. Harding

41. William Henry Harrison

42. Franklin Pierce

43. Andrew Johnson

44. James Buchanan

45. Donald Trump

Six months ago, the likely GOP nominee said he’d somehow figure out a way to make “both sides“ happy with a compromise solution, but he didn’t identify what it might entail. Evidently, however, he has a relatively specific plan in mind. The New York Times reported:

Former President Donald J. Trump has told advisers and allies that he likes the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban with three exceptions, in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother, according to two people with direct knowledge of Mr. Trump’s deliberations.

....But in the larger debate, 16 is not a number that’s generally included in the conversation. So why is this Trump’s target? The Times report added:

One thing Mr. Trump likes about a 16-week federal ban on abortions is that it’s a round number. “Know what I like about 16?” Mr. Trump told one of these people, who was given anonymity to describe a private conversation. “It’s even. It’s four months.”

Reading this, one might get the impression that the former president is approaching the issue with the sophistication of a child, and that impression would be more than fair. But it’s worth emphasizing that Trump has spent years pursuing specific policy goals based on whether he finds specific numerals appealing.

In 2017, for example, as GOP officials tackled a massive package of tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations, Republican negotiators worked on new tax brackets. At the time, Trump wanted individual tax rates “to be multiples of 5” — not for any substantive reason, but because the then-president simply thought those numbers sounded nicer.

Around the same time, Republicans embraced a plan that lowered the corporate tax rate to 21%. Trump tolerated the lower rate, though he preferred a 20% rate. “Twenty is a pretty number,” the then-president said at the time.

It’s against this backdrop that Trump is approaching the future of abortion rights with the same degree of seriousness — which is lacking in anything resembling seriousness.

The ruling also completes a fraud trifecta of sorts. As regular readers know, Trump’s “university” proved to be a fraudulent operation, and during his White House tenure, the Republican was required to pay $25 million to his former “students” — a first-of-its-kind payment for a sitting American president.

Also while in office, Trump’s charitable foundation proved to be a fraudulent operation, which was forced to close its doors, and which led to a $2 million judgment after the evidence showed he repeatedly misused the ostensible charity for his own interests.

And now the former president’s has been found to have committed repeated acts of fraud, too.

As my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin explained, this new ruling “will likely be appealed, so it won’t necessarily be the final word on the fate of the Trump empire.” But in the meantime, it’s worth appreciating the fact that it takes a special kind of person to get caught overseeing a fraudulent charity, a fraudulent “university,” and a business that repeatedly committed fraud.

This dimension to the story has long been literally unbelievable, but this week, it got much worse — not for the president, but for those hunting him. NBC News reported:

An FBI informant has been indicted on two counts for allegedly feeding the bureau false information about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign. Alexander Smirnov, 43, disliked Joe Biden and was arrested in Las Vegas after returning from a trip overseas, according to the Justice Department.

The indictment alleges that Smirnov “provided false derogatory information to the FBI” about Biden and his son. The charges stem from the special counsel investigation led by David Weiss — the Trump-appointed prosecutor.

Reporting on the developments shortly after the indictment was announced, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes described this as “the most spectacular embarrassment imaginable” for the Republicans going after the president.....

If recent history is any guide, GOP officials will ignore Raskin. Indeed, I have no doubt that the House Republicans’ crusade against Biden will continue, even after their star witness was charged with lying to the FBI, and their entire case against the president has unraveled in humiliating fashion.

I am, however, less sure how the crusade will continue. The party was clinging to one misguided thing, and now that thing is gone.

As the House Republican conference unravels, it’s reached the point at which Politico reported that some are starting to long for the days of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s miserable tenure.

For nine months in his speakership, Kevin McCarthy seemed like a man with a title but no power — desperately improvising to keep his job amid factions ready to turn on him in an instant. Now, in his fourth month in alleged power, Speaker Mike Johnson has accomplished what once seemed unthinkable: making McCarthy seem like a skilled strategist and master of the House.

A separate Politico report, quoting House GOP insiders, said it appears Johnson “is flying by the seat of his pants, polishing his reputation for dithering in the face of tough decisions.”....

Meet the new hapless House speaker. He’s the same as the old hapless House speaker.

There’s no reason to assume, however, that Johnson has hit rock bottom. As lawmakers head to the airport, they’re due back on Feb. 28 — just a few days before the first of two government shutdown deadlines that GOP leaders have done little to address