Biden Should Avoid Baseball’s Lockout Fight

Jonathan Bernstein: “The problem here is that it’s a no-win situation. Suppose Biden was able to negotiate a deal. Most voters wouldn’t care; they’re either not baseball fans or only mildly interested. For them, a Biden-negotiated deal would at best be a story they see one or two times. Even dedicated fans would be unlikely to give Biden much credit to begin with, and it’s highly unlikely they’d still have the dispute on their minds by election time.”

“If the effort goes wrong, however, those serious baseball fans might well blame Biden for the continued lockout. Not only do people tend to remember the bad longer than the good, but in this case failing to broker a deal would mean that the work stoppage continues, creating a constant reminder of failure (while neither the league nor the players will want to remind anyone of labor trouble once it’s resolved).”

Robert Reich says he learned this lesson the hard way when he was Labor Secretary.