Joe Biden is supposed to be an experienced hand at Capitol Hill deal-making, but he seems really vague on what he wants out of a spending deal; he shocked his allies by whipping against his own bipartisan infrastructure deal, saying it should be put on the back burner until the much bigger Build Back Better spending bill has enough votes to pass. Biden can go out into the states and stump for his bill, but his approval ratings are weak; no wavering Democrat fears him.
Biden’s not much of an orator. He clearly doesn’t like getting into the details of policy, and when he speaks off the cuff, Jen Psaki usually has to do cleanup a day later. Biden’s own special envoy for climate, John Kerry, not-so-subtly suggested that Biden doesn’t understand the consequences of his policy initiatives. Biden seems to have absorbed liberal historians’ suggestion that he can be the next Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson, but ignores the fact that he doesn’t have large, like-minded congressional majorities.
Ironically, there was one role Biden might have excelled in, the one he posed in while winning the Democratic primary: the moderate, wise elder statesman who tells the progressive wing of his party “no” when they go too far. But that’s the role Biden has chosen to abdicate.
As Charlie Cooke asked, what is Biden good at?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member