Not only is it true that Biden has narrow majorities, this is likely to be a defining feature of his presidency. Unforeseen events always take a hand, but if you had to guess now, it seems likely that one of the headlines at the end of the Biden years will be, “The president had vaulting ambitions, frustrated by razor-thin (and perhaps temporary) legislative majorities.” Somehow, this was apparently passed over or brushed aside at Biden’s session with liberal historians at the White House that focused on how he could be a transformative leader in the mold of FDR or LBJ. It didn’t figure in the spate of commentary around the time of the passage of the Covid-relief bill that Biden was indeed on track to be the next FDR. It should have driven as much attention to what Biden can’t do, as what he can do, or he wants to do, but the wish-casting among Democrats and some journalists was too strong to acknowledge the cold reality.