What can we expect from Biden's lame-duck denouement?

This week, President Joe Biden rolled out a broad multi-agency initiative to help "crack down on all the ways that corporations — through excessive paperwork, hold times, and general aggravation — add unnecessary headaches and hassles to people's days and degrade their quality of life." In addition to its slate of proposed actions, the project, dubbed "Time Is Money," includes a call for Americans to "share their ideas for how federal action can give them their time back." It's a hint, perhaps, as to how Biden and his team plan to refocus their remaining in office after freeing themselves from the constraints of a now-abandoned reelection campaign. 

With five months left in office, Biden is now firmly in his lame-duck era: a period of planned obsolescence in which the power of his presidency is perceived as diminishing while his eventual successor's inauguration draws nearer. At the same time, Biden is now in a position to focus solely on governing without the distractions and hedging that come with running a national campaign for reelection. The president sits at a peculiar nexus that sees him politically weakened and empowered at the same time. As the clock counts down to election day and inauguration day after that, what can we expect from Biden in this final phase of his presidency? 

What did the commentators say? 

As Biden "looks to secure a one-term legacy," he has charged his White House staff with four "main pillars" on which to focus in the coming months, CNN said. They include the continued push for "key legislation," economic growth via student debt relief and lower costs for prescription drugs, calling out and countering hate and extremism, and a strong foreign policy agenda. The plan is to "finish as strong as we started," White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said.

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Presidents in their lame-duck periods have often "used the waning days of their presidencies to take big shots at weighty policy," PBS NewsHour said. Given the war between Ukraine and Russia, as well as ongoing cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, foreign policy could be Biden's "best hope for a final legacy-defining moment." Still, with so many global crises happening at once, "realistically, there might not be enough time for big breakthroughs," Gordon Grey, a former U.S. ambassador and professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, said to PBS. 

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, hope that ending his campaign has "liberated their White House ally from the grueling rigors of the campaign trail and the delicate political concerns that come with seeking reelection," The Hill said. Instead, Biden can use his "unusual station to advance a host of Democratic policy priorities" which, even if they have little chance of becoming law, "could put a spotlight on specific issues and set off a messaging blitz during his final months in office." 

Compared to his Democratic predecessor's end-of-term policy blitz, Biden has "little of Obama's nimbleness," The Nation said. Instead, he remains "so committed to his old policies" around Ukraine and Israel that he may end up exacerbating a foreign policy crisis, which "could upend the election and the world, unleashing a chaos that will help bring Donald Trump back into the White House." 

What next? 

The coming months for Biden will likely feature increasing opposition from congressional Republicans working to "connect his administration to Vice President Kamala Harris" while at the same time being "beholden to their nominee," Foreign Policy said. Moreover, Biden may have already hit a limit on what he can accomplish through executive actions, "leaving little more the president can do without more funding from Capitol Hill," The Hill said. 

Ultimately then, Biden could potentially be most effective by becoming a "juggernaut on the campaign trail," PBS Newshour said. "His most important job over the new few months is setting the conditions to make Kamala Harris successful," University of Chicago Political Scientist William Howell told the network. However, as Harris seeks to carve out her own electoral niche, she needs to "distinguish herself from his administration," University of South Florida Professor Rob Mellen said at The Washington Examiner. With that in mind, The Examiner said, he's more likely "poised to float out of office like a lame duck on the tides of change."