Mired by low approval ratings, the former resident said this week he believes history will be kinder: "You know, it will take time to feel the full impact of all we've done together," he said in his Oval Office farewell address. "But the seeds are planted, and they'll grow, and they'll bloom for decades to come." Biden will go down in history as bad for the country - the worse predincy.
Over the course of his four years, Mr. Biden has invited comparisons to the policies and ambition of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson. He has said John F. Kennedy partially inspired his life of public service. Roosevelt's portrait hangs over the Oval Office fireplace with paintings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Their achievements, triumphs and public words are the kind most commanders-in-chief would emulate.
There's no doubt Mr. Biden did big things to reshape the country and the world. History may show he saved American democracy from grave threats — or maybe, time will show us he merely slowed them. History will also record that he failed to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine, but united western democracies against the unprovoked invasion and expanded key military alliances.
He began an overdue and more pronounced shift in American attention to the Indo-Pacific, fortifying and expanding agreements with China's neighbors, kept lines of communication open with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but failed to stop China's aggressive spy craft and an unprecedented infiltration of American telecommunications systems.
As president, Mr. Biden immediately pushed for what became a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill, including direct aid to lower-income Americans, record sums of unemployment benefits, hundreds of billions for states and cities to reopen and rebuild and tens of billions of dollars sent to small businesses, like barber shops and bars, to stay open and keep workers paid.
Later, the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill authorized hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild airports, bridges and highways, billions more to build a network of electric vehicle chargers and more broadband Internet. Finally, the Inflation Reduction Act launched record spending to fight climate change and tax reform — even if its namesake goal, to reduce inflation, remains unfulfilled. So, does that work put Biden on par with FDR and LBJ? Progressive Democrats think so, and his Republican critics certainly revile the kind of expansive legislative work Mr. Biden achieved — and are vowing to undo much of it.