The Last Politician

by Franklin Foer

With unparalleled access to the tight inner circle of advisers who have surrounded Biden for decades, Foer dramatizes in forensic detail the first two years of the Biden presidency, concluding with the historic midterm elections. This is a gripping portrait of a major president at a time when democracy itself seems imperiled. Biden resorted to old-fashioned politics: deal-making and compromise. It was a gamble that seemed at first disastrously anachronistic, as he struggled to rally even the support of his own party. Yet, as the midterms drew near, via a series of bills with banal names, Biden somehow found a way to invest trillions of dollars in clean energy, the domestic semiconductor industry, and new infrastructure. Had he done the impossible ― breaking decisively with the old Washington consensus to achieve progressive goals?