The backslapping VP really got stuff done in Congress for Obama–but that meant compromise, and Democrats may want a warrior.
President Barack Obama was elected during an economic cataclysm, and his first major task was passing an economic stimulus bill. But Republican leaders were determined to stop him, and he needed to persuade three GOP senators to support his bill and break the filibuster. He assigned the job to his Senate whisperer, his chief dealmaker, his aide with the best bipartisan relationships: Vice President Joe Biden.
“Give me a break,” Biden told me several years later. “I’ve been doing this my entire career. I’m going to say something outrageous: I don’t know anybody who counts votes better than me in the Senate. … I love the left saying, 'Well, we could’ve gotten more.' OK, you go get it! You tell me how to get the 60 votes!”
In the past, polls have found that Democrats want their leaders to seek compromise, while Republicans do not, and Biden’s backers don’t think the clamor against compromise among Twitter liberals reflects the sentiment of actual voters. They believe his Middle-Class Joe persona as a down-to-earth Scranton guy who can work with anyone will appeal to Democrats more interested in results than rhetoric, as well as independents alienated by Trump’s obsessive focus on his base.
But the liberal queasiness about Biden is not just about his reverence for hidebound Senate rules; so far, among 2020 Democrats, only Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, and Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington have opposed the filibuster.
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