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Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
There are three things Joe Biden can’t get rid of: his Secret Service guards, his own shadow, and the phrase “. . . since Lyndon Johnson”. He is considered the most consequential Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson. He is said to have brought about the largest expansion of the federal government since Lyndon Johnson. The historical comparison is well-intentioned. In fact, it undercuts him.
In turning ideas into law, LBJ had generous advantages. Democrats outnumbered Republicans in both chambers of Congress for much of the 1960s by about two to one. After replacing the assassinated John F. Kennedy, he began with the goodwill of the nation and was able to portray his reforms as the unfinished work of his predecessor. Biden didn’t have the numbers or the moral advantage. Still, last week the Ukraine aid package joined Biden’s canon of major (or at least expensive) legislation, the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act and a massive infrastructure effort.
What can we learn from this prolific doer? What is the lesson of this amazingly fruitful presidential term as we near its end?
Above all, one thing: eloquence is overrated. The same goes for charisma, vision setting, and all other “performance aspects” of politics. Even before his age-related decline, Biden was an average to poor communicator. He has not had a standout speech or even an epigram in half a century of frontline politics. But he has more insider knowledge of Washington — its details, its unwritten codes — than any other president ever. The result is a one-year legacy that goes beyond what silver-tonguers like Bill Clinton managed in two terms.
The haggling over Ukraine was instructive. For weeks, Biden privately put pressure on House Speaker Mike Johnson by showing him intelligence briefings but never harassing him in front of voters or Republican colleagues. Biden, like his more outwardly gifted predecessors, did not always understand the importance of face. And one more thing: He can count.
A leader cannot be so inept in his presentation that he is unelectable. But once that low standard is reached, the returns to star power diminish. Britain’s two greatest postwar leaders were the taciturn Clement Attlee and the lumbering communicator Margaret Thatcher. (Much of her charisma was attributed to her in retrospect.) Her country-changing qualities – perseverance, focus, certainty – were on the private side of politics the most of politics.
Liberals need to hear this more than most. Americans in particular can be snobbish snobs when it comes to education and language. In The western wing, They had to create their ideal president. The result? A hyper-articulate Yankee Brahmin. Likewise, it took decades to correct the overestimation of Kennedy’s skill and agility compared to Johnson. (Camelot. What a tellingly aristocratic metaphor.)
But the ultimate beneficiary of this liberal obsession with rhetoric was Barack Obama. It wasn’t even deep rhetoric. “My story is not even possible in any other country in the world.” What? In no other country can the son of an African immigrant become a provincial legislator? (Obama was a senator from Illinois when he said that.) That sounds good. But it was enough to blind people to the mistakes of a government that is currently undergoing a downward revision. Biden is to Obama what Johnson was to Kennedy.
In the distant past, when the state did little outside of war, it inspired people Was the core task of leadership. Hence the study of rhetoric in classical pedagogy. Once the government assumed a welfare and economic role, the mechanisms of legislation became more important. But the perception of what makes a leader has never taken hold. Because people overestimate what they can do, the educated political-media class overestimates eloquence.
I say all this because I’m not a particular admirer of Biden’s domestic bills. If he loses re-election, inflation will be the cause, to which his spending likely contributed. Its protectionism virtually guarantees immense waste and fragments the global trade order that allowed the postwar United States to bind countries to it. So what is the offer for nations that fall into China’s sphere of influence? And while Johnson’s work stopped—God help the politician who touches Medicare—Biden’s work might not stop. The US debt situation does not allow for endless further subsidies.
However, there are other moments to discuss How Biden is using his political skills. Just recognize this ability and how little it relies on words. If a “great” leader is someone who changes things, for good or not, then that is leadership of murmurous, tongue-tied greatness.