"I think they’re witnessing incredible irresponsibility, incredibly damaging messages being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions."

"And I think it is … Well, I don’t know his motive, but I just think it’s totally irresponsible.... No, I’m not concerned the vast majority of the American people [might question the legitimacy of my administration]. All the polling data has indicated, although the Republicans who worry about it, it’s higher, but over 78% of the American people believe it’s without question, it’s legitimate. And I think most of the Republicans I’ve spoken to, including some of the governors, think this is debilitating. It sends a horrible message about who we are as a country."

Said Joe Biden, yesterday, when asked about Trump's refusal to concede the election. Transcript.

The press conference was about handling the pandemic, and I was encouraged to see him embrace the decentralized federalism approach: "No national shutdown. No national shutdown, because every region, every area, every community can be different. And so there’s no circumstance which I can see would require a total national shutdown. I think that would be counterproductive."

I like the calmness, the modesty. He's displaying good instincts right now. I'll just give this my "I'm for Boring" tag to gesture at what I like about the emerging Biden administration.

IN THE COMMENTS: Balfegor points to this new poll, which Biden could not have seen when he spoke of "all the polling data" yesterday:

Huge: "How likely is it that Democrats stole votes or destroyed pro-Trump ballots in several states to ensure that Biden would win?"

Democrats - 30% - 20% say Very Likely (VL)
Unaffiliated - 39% - 29% say VL
Republicans - 75% - 61% say VL
All Voters - 47% - 36% say VL https://t.co/NMDryxyLzq pic.twitter.com/EblRuV2AXY

— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) November 20, 2020

But notice the way the question is asked. It's not about whether enough votes were affected but whether the motive was to affect enough votes. Biden was talking about belief that he really did win enough votes. To believe that is not the same as believing that there were no stolen votes. In that light, these poll results are inconsequential. It's easy to say I'm sure there was some fraud, in some places, and also to believe that overall the result we're seeing is legitimate. It's not perfect, but it's good enough. The point at which you say that varies depending on whether you're happy with the outcome you're seeing now. 

ALSO IN THE COMMENTS: DEEBEE writes:

Interesting that the federalist approach did not trigger “Trump-Ian” approach in your remarks.

I didn't write it out, but I thought it. It seemed obvious. I'm not trying to suppress it. Throughout this year, I have defended Trump's federalism approach when he was criticized for not taking over with a top-down national approach. There's this, from April 11th:

I've seen some pressure on Trump to take more one-size-fits-all, top-down actions, and he has resisted because it's a big country and conditions are different in different places. Similarly, when Trump moves toward reopening, he is, I presume, going to continue with this approach, supporting opening the places where the conditions are most amenable to returning to work. We'll ease into it, watching as we go, and proceeding with caution. 

The Times says "people will be wary of resuming normal activities before the country has far more extensive testing," meaning testing to see who has the virus (or the antibodies). But another kind of testing is experimenting with opening the country back up in a gradual way, where conditions are best, observing how well it works, and moving forward learning from experience. This is the experimentation characteristic of American federalism.

And this, from April 14th (when the press painted Trump as a demented Captain Queeq): 

Trump wants the governors to take responsibility and to do what works within each one's particular state. They're acting as though they are rebelling, and he'll stand his ground as the captain of the ship, insisting on his authority, so they can look like mutineers for the pleasure of the theater audience.... And the governors get the political cover they need to do what he probably would like to tell them straightforwardly to step up and do.