Today, Biden must use all the tools Johnson deployed if he wants a shot at passing some version of the Build Back Better bill next year. The largest coal mining union in the country has called for Manchin to reverse his position and Biden should work with them to build pressure against the Senator in his own state by making it clear just how much the Build Back Better bill would benefit West Virginians. Biden should also leverage his position and let Manchin know if he remains a no, the doors to the Oval Office won’t be open to him for much longer.

The President can also bite the bullet and accept a much smaller legislative package in January — one that doesn’t include many of the climate change provisions Manchin opposes, to see if it makes a difference. The risk, of course, is that Biden gives up too much and ends up with nothing if other, more progressive Democrats refuse to accept this deal.

Perhaps the most effective strategy would be to appeal to Manchin’s own ego. Johnson loved to do this to lawmakers, realizing there was no better means of persuasion than to let them wield their power and lap up the credit and adulation. With Manchin, Biden can remind the Senator a shift from decisive opposition to key architect—the same role Mills had played with Medicare or Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen with the Civil Rights Act of 1964—would ensure his place in the history books.