Caren Joe Manchin is an anomaly in that he is a Democrat in a Republican majority state.

Hence it was always a mistake to rely on his cooperation. Could he have done the BBB? Yes. But he didn't. I agree his objections don't make a lot of sense eg. inflation and adding to national debt. It's unfortunate because the country would have benefitted. Now we will move to a further watered down version of the bill.

Pragmatically best to wrap up the attacks on Joe Manchin and move on because he can still be helpful somewhere else.

Personally I believe the progressives continue to way overplay their hand. And they fail to sell the hand they have outside their own bubble. That's not to say that many of their ideas don't make sense, but they need communicating -- and that''s a slog.

Many thanks