No president would wish for divided government, but 15 years out of the past quarter-century four presidents have labored with a Congress fully or partially in control of the opposition party. Paradoxically, presidents often find it easier to fashion a sharper image of themselves when they are less harnessed in public opinion to their own party. It is a reminder that there is only one figure in the government who is empowered by the country as a whole.

Biden, of course, doesn’t have divided government yet. But the best way of lifting his popularity — and perhaps forestalling or mitigating a midterm backlash this fall — is to start acting like he does. This offers a chance to talk about what he personally stands for, rather than being perceived as the negotiator in chief — trying to reconcile a party that stretches from Joe Manchin to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

A warning: This isn’t for the faint of heart. People tend to forget how Clinton was excoriated by his own party (a leading member of Congress complained in 1995 that Republicans were toying with him “like a kitten with a string”). Obama, meanwhile, by 2011 was trying to revive a coalition that included many activists who had long since gotten over their crushes of 2008. His support for bailing out banks (which he believed necessary to save the economy) was regarded as appeasement by the left flank of his party, and it wasn’t obvious all supporters would return home by 2012.