Biden is 'better president than people thought,' Politico argues, gives him 'solid B' grade

A new column from Politico founding editor John Harris praised President Joe Biden as a "better president than people thought" after the leader finally made headway on some climate legislation.

Harris claimed that Biden may end his term having earned a "solid B" for a grade, even though it seemed as though he was "failing his class for most of the semester." 

The column began with what seemed like Harris’ epiphany, asking, "Wait, is Biden a better president than people thought?" Before getting to that, he prefaced his argument with the complaints that voters have against the Biden as president. 

"Many progressives have spent the Biden years in a mood of rising despair and even rage about the prospects for achieving the kind of fundamental change they believe the country and world urgently need," he acknowledged, adding, "Above all, they wish Joe Biden was a different kind of president — or that a different leader altogether was in his job."

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Harris is correct there. Biden is so unpopular that even his own party want a different presidential candidate for next term. A new CNN poll shows that 75% of Democratic Party voters want a different candidate to run for president in 2024. A Quinnipiac University poll from earlier this month revealed that Biden’s approval among all Americans is only at 31%.

The mainstream media has hammered Biden’s performance as well. A recent New York Times column from Bret Stephens said that "the best thing Biden could do for the country" would be to announce that he would not be running for re-election in 2024 and do so ahead of the midterm elections. 

Despite all the negativity, Harris asserted, "Suddenly, the mood is looking up. Manchin’s surprise decision to back $370 billion in tax credits to stimulate clean-energy technologies and other progressive environmental priorities came after many Democrats had concluded hope was pointless."

Now that Biden can pass climate change legislation, "it invites a reappraisal of Biden’s leadership," he added. 

Harris illustrated this situation of Biden’s electoral redemption by claiming the president "is looking a little like the student who is failing his class for most of the semester, then pulls an all-nighter and slips the paper under the professor’s door at 6 a.m." 

"It turns out the paper is actually pretty good. There’s no way he’s getting an A for the term, but no fair grader would give him an F, either. A solid B is within reach," he stated.

Because of this breakthrough on the climate legislation, "Biden’s presidency has more life, and more possibility, than it looked like 48 hours ago." 

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This is the second Politico piece in two days claiming that Biden is looking better because of Senator Manchin, D-W.Va., agreeing to vote for climate legislation. A Politico report from Thursday claimed, "Somehow, someway, Joe Biden is back in the game."

Harris noted that Biden is "fundamentally defined by his limits — most of all by his weak rhetorical skills and his inability to tell a compelling story about where he would take the country," but returned to president’s positive political qualities writing, "He didn’t give up when it became clear that maximalist goals were impossible, but gave Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer cover to achieve important incremental ones. He didn’t burn bridges, when many others were ready to do so," he said.

Ultimately though, Harris doubted Biden’s ability to "re-order the politics of" his time, something "successful presidents" do. One of the columnist’s last questions implied this doubt: "Has he changed the trajectory of America, at a moment when a recent poll by Monmouth University found 88 percent of the electorate believes the country is on the ‘wrong track[?]’"

As such, Harris concluded, "Joe Biden, like Joe Manchin, has shown the ability to surprise people. But it seems unlikely that he can transform himself or the limitations that have shadowed his presidency to date."

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