Also: putting the health reform on the national agenda (it refuses to die ever since), urban development, housing and public transportation, the Oslo Accord and helping to maintain relative peace in the Middle East, supporting international cooperation and the UN, endorsing environmental and human rights issues that gave birth to Seattle, vetoing a draconian bankruptcy bill.
In short, he endorsed (even if by paying lip service) many liberal causes giving them legitimacy, which usually translates into greater resource mobilization potential. By contrast, the logic of "making things worse to prod the masses to rebel" is pure pseudo-revolutionary bullshit that cannot be demonstrated by a single historical precedent.
Wojtek