Yeah, but legalizing weed, student debt forgiveness, whatever, it's all easy votes for anyone who does it, but they always leave it on the table. Why didn't Trump do it? Why didn't Obama do it? It's because they're all more concerned with winning support from the elites than from the people. Biden's public-facing brand has always been pretty shitty and he doesn't really invest in it, and it hasn't really stopped him, so why start now? If he can improve his public standing a lot at the cost of hurting his elite standing a little, it's probably not worth it unless the difference is overwhelming.

The general strategy for US elections is to try to be the biggest lapdog while not totally alienating your base. You can, alternatively, try burning bridges with the elites and appeal to the people directly through popular policies, and that might work sometimes, but that's the exception. And I don't think there's a coherent path that goes halfway, because if you're halfway committed to the elites and the other guy is fully committed to them, they'll pick the other guy, and wtf would Biden even have going for him at that point?