A few years ago (and even as I type those words, I realize that it was more than a few years ago. Alas, I’m getting older, grumble, grumble…) I heard former President George H.W. Bush tell a story about his mom being upset with him during an early run for elective office. She, of New England prim and proper stock, told her son that in his campaign he was talking about himself too much. He laughed in telling that story, in that it is rather difficult to not talk about yourself when you are selling yourself and your ideas to the public at large.

Politics is a game in which personal modesty has not always served candidates well. Truly modest folks are rather hard to find in office these days. My former boss, Sen. Michael Bennet, is a genuinely modest person, rarely drawing attention to his many personal and public accomplishments. Former Gov. Bill Owens is also a modest guy, and so is our current governor.

And you know who else is way too modest these days? Spoiler: it’s Joe Biden.

After four years of a president who bragged about, well, pretty much everything from the condition of the economy to the size of his hands, Joe Biden seems like a breath of fresh air. But there is a problem with being too modest. Simply put, if you, as president, don’t brag about what you have done, way too many people will think you haven’t done much, especially when certain GOPers (and their personal cable “news” channel) jump in front of any available camera to declare that nothing, in fact, has been done, and everything is terrible.

I pondered the “modesty problem” of Biden as I was reviewing the coverage of his recent nearly-two-hour press briefing. I thought he did a terrific job, both in terms of what he said and in terms of just showing up for such a marathon event. And from the questions the press asked, you would think that this nation is on death’s door economically, morally and in every other way.

Here’s the problem with Biden’s modesty: the country, in the face of the worst global pandemic since the black plague, is doing amazingly well.

Even by using the metrics that the previous president bragged about, the Biden economy is doing even better. The US financial markets are outdoing the rest of the world by the biggest margin in this century. In fact, the US economy improved, in just Biden’s first year, by more than it has during any president in the last 50 years. Biden’s economy ranks first in a number of categories, including GDP, profit growth, consumer credit, S&P 500 performance and in jobs.

Let’s talk about job growth under Biden: In his first year in office, we saw more jobs created (6.4 million) than in the first three years combined under Trump. And before you start shouting about the impacts of the pandemic, remember that you don’t get to blame Biden for things that are going poorly if you are not also willing to give him credit for things that are going great, like, for example, the economy.

But I hear the voices crying out, what about inflation? It’s terrible! Well, sure, rising prices hurt lots of people. But why is inflation so high these days? Well, again, it’s the economy getting better and hotter.

When the economic engine of this nation really starts kicking, an inevitable outcome is that inflation will occur. I still remember an old economics professor of mine carefully explaining to our class that some inflation is the mark of a healthy economy, and that without it, an economy can’t really grow. Candy bars don’t cost a nickel anymore, but neither is the minimum wage the $1.25 it was back then.

Now the rate of inflation is certainly an important factor, but any US president has limited tools to directly fight the rate of inflation. The supply chain bottlenecks caused by, or at least worsened by COVID, are a major factor, and hopefully those problems will decrease as more and more people get vaccinated. Get your shots, people!

A recent opinion piece looked at Biden’s first remarkable year and noted that Biden has quietly gotten quite a bit done. He twice attacked Iranian proxy forces in Iraq and Syria when they threatened to kill US personnel. He formally recognized, after 100 years of US presidents refused to do so, the Armenian genocide of 1915, an important historical and diplomatic achievement. He got most of the money back from Russian hackers who ransomed the shutdown of an oil delivery system, and he dramatically accelerated the delivery of COVID vaccine both here in the US and abroad, saving millions of lives globally. The list goes on.

Oh, and he got a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed after lots of folks (especially his immediate predecessor) tried and failed.

Biden isn’t perfect, but he’s far better than the media (to say nothing of the GOP and Fox) are saying. So why do so many folks think that things are terrible? Well, lazy journalism is part of it. Reporting things like inflation numbers is easy, but helping folks understand the underlying economic factors is much harder.

And, frankly, Democrats are lousy at that whole bragging thing. Dems, all too often, wring their hands and don’t, frankly, crow about their achievements enough.

Now, I’m not calling for reporting only “good news” as if there is nothing wrong in the world. But I would like to see much more reporting that things are nuanced. That inflation, like water for crops, is important but must be addressed and tempered – too little water and the crops all die of thirst, but too much rain and they drown. The American people are smart enough to understand complex ideas. And every significant issue is, in fact, nuanced to some degree.

And, my fellow Dems, stop being so darn modest.

Especially Joe.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.