Democrats must confront some hard truths about their president. President Joe Biden is an old-fashioned, slightly left-of-center moderate, who cut his teeth on the once common political notion that getting a little is better than getting nothing. He’s no idealogue.
It’s actually Biden who lives for the art of the deal — not his opponent. Biden thrives in the middle, eager to search for compromise. It’s how he passed gun safety legislation, the infrastructure bill that is renewing roads and bridges across the country, the CHIPS Act that is bringing manufacturing back to the US, and federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
He has, in fact, crafted more bipartisan deals than any president in a generation. Biden’s big flaw — and it’s one shared by many Democrats — is that he is lousy at messaging: telling people what he did, how it will improve their lives, and pounding those accomplishments home until they are ringing in voters’ ears. Messaging is former President Donald Trump’s real strength, not the compromise that is a basic component of any deal.
Trump talked about a coming “Infrastructure Week” so many times when he occupied the White House you would swear he did something about it. When he sent relief checks to Americans during the pandemic, he never let them forget it. At the Democratic Governors Association meeting in Minneapolis earlier this week, I talked to a number of governors who have walked the very narrow path Biden now treads.
They not o.
