Joe Biden in The Long Game, by Mitch McConnell

On Principles & Values: OpEd: McConnell can work with Biden; he talks AND listens

I learned that Joe didn't only talk, he also listened. He was, therefore, someone I could work with. A few months earlier, he and I successfully negotiated a means to address the rise in taxes, with the scheduled December 10 expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts. Allowing these cuts to expire would have meant significant tax increase for every American taxpayer. After others have tried and failed for months to negotiate a solution, Joe and I had been able to do so in days. The reason we could get a deal done, and I could work with Joe, was that we could talk to one another. I could tell him how far we could go, and he would reciprocate, unlike Obama. The president's way of interacting and negotiating was utterly unproductive. Joe, on the other hand, made no effort to convince me I was wrong, or that I held an incorrect view. He took my politics as a given, and I did the same, which was what allowed us to successfully negotiate when it came to our discussion on taxes in 2010. Source: The Long Game, by Mitch McConnell, p.209-210 May 31, 2016

The above quotations are from The Long Game A Memoir by Mitch McConnell. Click here for other excerpts from The Long Game A Memoir by Mitch McConnell. Click here for other excerpts by Joe Biden. Click here for a profile of Joe Biden.
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