Biden’s Talents and His Achievements.

  By 2024, Biden, Elections, People

One reason I think Biden has been such a good president. He doesn’t get swept up in the last moment but thinks ahead. He did that in getting out of Afghanistan early. I know many of you disagree but I think his policy in the Israel-Gaza war has been setting the stage for a new push to a peaceful settlement. (If only an Israel government would arise willing to grasp that possibility!)

And on domestic policy he has been just brilliant .

The way he maneuvered Manchin into support the inflation reduction act was absolutely and totally masterful, not just as a matter of political strategy but in adopting a very different policy strategy that Manchin would accept.

He challenged his policy people to figure out a way to attack climate change with tax credit carrots instead of regulatory sticks in the IRA. By doing that he won over Manchin.
And then he made a bold and risky decision to do the infrastructure bill first, and by doing so won Manchin’s acquiescence to the IRA even when most progressives including me thought this was a terrible idea.
Frankly, I’m just in awe of how he both embraced policy strategy switch and the deal with Manchin as a way to lock the latter down and overcome a very problematic Senate to pass an incredibly good bill. No pundit saw it coming. I did not see it coming.
It was just  brilliant. And I don’t know anyone else but Biden who could have pulled it off.

If Obama had Biden’s political chops, we might well have gotten a public option in 2010. At any rate, we only got the ACA because of the work the Biden and Pelosi did.

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