With the nation's economy - and much of the president's legacy - hanging in the balance just weeks before the election, White House chief economist Lael Brainard told management that they needed to come up with a new offer to the striking longshoremen. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stressed that Hurricane Helene magnified the importance of a deal. Labor Secretary Julie Su expressed optimism that the union would agree to a temporary extension if raises were included.

And then, in a surprising move, as the call was wrapping up, Zients told the board members of the United States Maritime Alliance that he was going to tell Biden in about an hour that they had agreed to propose a new offer to the union. By that point, the shipping executives had agreed to do no such thing. Zients was saying they would.

"I need the offer today - not tomorrow. Today," Zients said on the call. "I'm going to brief the president in an hour that you believe you can get this done today."

Less than 12 hours later, White House officials were celebrating a deal to reopen the ports until January - postponing the issue until after this November's election. The agreement provides collective if temporary relief to skittish Democrats from the White House to Capitol Hill, while buoying Vice President Kamala Harris along with Friday's strong jobs report.

This is what happens when you have a wizened leader - not an ego-driven braggart show-off - in charge of the nation's economic well being. Diamond Joe understands the true art of the deal in ways Trump can't even contemplate simply because Joe was acting primarily in this nation's best interests, not just his own and his legacy's.

But I have little doubt that Trump would have stopped the strike quickly as well, the difference being he would have ordered strikers back to work by invoking the Taft-Hartley Act because he could care less about the workers' desires, only caring about the owners' and his own.