Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina Over the summer, before the Senate passed the bipartisan infrastructure deal with 19 Republican votes, the White House’s research team compiled a document for the communications department. It spread throughout the West Wing and ultimately made its way to the president himself. It came with the sarcastic header: “HOTTAKES ON BIDEN’S AGENDA.” The document, which West Wing Playbook obtained, contained 27 cable news chyrons and articles with breathless predictions that JOE BIDEN’s policy priorities were on the cusp of failure, including a big bipartisan package. “DEMS STRUGGLE ON WAY FORWARD AS BIDEN AGENDA STALLS,” went a CNN chyron from June 8th. “BIDEN’S AGENDA STALLED AS HE BEGINS 8-DAY FOREIGN TRIP,” flashed MSNBC on June 9th. A piece in the document from The Washington Post called the infrastructure negotiations “seemingly stalled” and a CNN story described them as “plodding.” There were also pieces from Reuters, NBC, Fox News, and, yes, POLITICO (read the full thing here). Biden privately read through the clips. And when the Senate passed his infrastructure bill in August with Republican support, including Democrat bugaboo MITCH McCONNELL, he made a point of referencing them. “I was just reading about 50 statements from very serious press people about how I — my whole plan was ‘dead’ from the beginning,” he said with I-told-you-so swagger. “Look, the lesson learned is being willing to talk and listen. Listen. Call people in.” While final passage took longer than the White House wanted, Biden ultimately defied the naysayers. He appeared to revel in it Monday at the signing ceremony for the legislation, which will pump $550 billion into infrastructure projects over the next eight years, in addition to $650 billion in previously authorized funds. “The bill I’m about to sign into law is proof that despite the cynics, Democrats and Republicans can come together and deliver results,” he said. “We can do this.” Such can-do optimism often drew eyerolls from fellow Democrats, reporters, and liberal commentators during the 2020 Democratic primary and the early months of the Biden presidency. Biden has long had a chip on his shoulder, and both he and his team couldn’t help but note the snickers. Monday was an unambiguous victory for the central promise of Biden’s presidential campaign: to lower the temperature in Washington and find places of common ground. He has bet that his long experience in Washington and knowledge of the legislative process would allow him to succeed where some of his predecessors have failed — a bet that paid out on Monday. The big question mark is whether there is any other legislative ground that can produce this type of end result (especially if Republicans take over control of Congress in the midterms). It also remains unclear whether voters will reward such efforts a year from now. Biden is hitting the road this week to try and make the case that Democrats delivered, but current polling shows a steep climb ahead. It’s also possible that Biden’s moment of collaboration and civility could be undermined by future Democratic infighting on the next big agenda item, the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better framework. The White House has been logging that skepticism too, perhaps with an eye on engineering another tisk-tisk moment for the cynics. After Biden released his framework for the package late last month, aides added a Washington Post piece to the list. The headline : “Biden Unveils $1.75 Trillion Spending Plan, But Divisions Delay Economic Agenda” Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you MITCH LANDRIEU, infrastructure coordinator? We want to hear from you — and we’ll keep you anonymous: westwingtips@politico.com. Or if you want to stay really anonymous send us a tip through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram, or Whatsapp here. Or you can text/Signal Alex at 8183240098. | 
