The bipartisan gun-safety law that ended years of congressional paralysis did not meet his call to ban assault weapons. Proposed investments to expand economic opportunity through child care, child tax credits, paid leave and universal pre-kindergarten have faltered. He cannot claim a singular monument to rival Social Security, Medicare or even the Affordable Care Act, though he has strengthened it. This doesn’t make Biden a modern-day FDR or LBJ. Others who complained Biden had veered too far left have seen Congress take the largest-ever government steps to curb climate change. They joined a critical mass of Republicans to pass them. Progressive lawmakers who scorned the former senator’s talk of working with the GOP have seen Congress make bipartisan investments in infrastructure, domestic manufacturing of semiconductors, and veterans’ health care. Politicians and pundits describing a failed legislative agenda had written their reviews before the end of the play. In Congress, Biden has proven detractors wrong from both directions. The precision strike, the planning of which began this past spring, vindicated Biden’s assertions that the US could fight terrorism in Afghanistan even without troops on the ground. Late last month, weather conditions cleared the way for a CIA drone to kill al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri on the balcony of his Kabul home. But the turn of fortune has relieved some of the inflation pressures that remain his single largest political problem. The President didn’t cause either movement. Gas prices, which wounded Biden when they spiked, have declined for two months. It’s been a combination of good luck, skill and persistence by a president and Democratic Party determined to act unilaterally where Republicans wouldn’t and strike compromises where Republicans would. It has not happened because of a strategy shift or staff shakeup, though at low points allies wanted him to take those ritual steps. They are heading to South Carolina for a week-long vacation on Kiawah Island. President Joe Biden, center, waves as he is joined by, from left, son Hunter Biden, grandson Beau Biden, first lady Jill Biden, and daughter-in-law Melissa Cohen, as they stand at the top of the steps of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Wednesday, Aug.
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