Legacy

 I've seen a number of takes that Joe Biden's legacy is similar to LBJ's. Very impressive progressive legislation with one huge mistake. As Campos notes, Johnson stumbled into Vietnam and Biden let Merrick Garland fritter away the chance to put Trump behind bars. While both likely had misgivings, they likely could not conceptualize either losing in Vietnam or the American people re-electing Trump after January 6th.

We shall, indeed, see what the next 2-4 years brings. My worry is that a great deal of what Biden did is easily erased by Trump in ways that LBJ's accomplishments were not. Hell, the Affordable Care Act remains the most durable and important Democratic reform since LBJ. Biden expanded it, but we shall see if that expansion survives.

There's a rumor going around that right before he dropped out, Biden's internal polling showed him losing New York. A true Red Wave. Whether that was caused by the debate or not, the strongest reason Harris lost is because Biden was quite unpopular. There were voices - especially after the disastrous debate performance - arguing that he was the "best President of my lifetime" because he came through on a few progressive agenda items. I'd argue that one of them - relieving college debt - likely hurt Democrats electability. It felt than and feels truer now, that some online Democrats rallied around a beleaguered standard bearer, refused to see what was happening and then kept defending him. 

Harris ran a great campaign. Biden really can't campaign effectively. She saved us from a true Red Wave and I'm afraid Biden's legacy will be poor, even if that's mostly Merrick Garland's fault.