"[T]he fact that Biden did not lead his party to a landslide will... give him certain political advantages. He will not be permitted..."

"... to re-enact the New Deal or the Great Society, but neither will he be tempted into ideologically driven debacles like Bill Clinton’s failed health care push or even Donald Trump’s failed attempt to repeal Obamacare. Having Joe Manchin and Susan Collins as the most powerful figures in the Senate will not be good for progressivism’s policy objectives, but it could be very good for Biden’s popularity, enabling him to chart a moderate course while telling the left, sorry, but my hands are tied.... Science should guide the coronavirus response, [Xavier] Becerra is a peculiar choice [to run Health and Human Services]: a partisan politician from a deep-blue state whose health care experience is mostly in legal battles with the Trump White House over Obamacare.... It’s less odd, though, if you anticipate using your cabinet agencies the way the Obama White House did in its otherwise-gridlocked second term — as aggressive instruments of partisan policymaking... [such as] immigration amnesties and gun-control executive orders... [and] college sexual-assault policies and school-bathroom regulations... [and forcing] the Little Sisters of the Poor to cover contraception.... ... Biden won the presidency in part because he was more popular than his party (to say nothing of the press), and deploying his bureaucracy aggressively for liberal ends would be the easiest way for him to squander some of that advantage...."

Writes Ross Douthat in "The Biden Opportunity and How to Blow It/The president-elect won promising conciliation. His choice of Xavier Becerra to run Health and Human Services promises culture war" (NYT).