The president has very limited ability to change moral failings, like Planned Parenthood. Congress can make some inroads, perhaps. Here’s the way I see it, although the more politically astute here might not.
If the president is an ideologue, the opposition on either side tend to set their feet in concrete. A negotiator president, not ideologically driven, can work to offer cover to congresspersons who might not otherwise vote, for instance, against immorality.
This is vaguely how Reagan and Tip O’Neill worked in a happier and less polarized time. The polarization of today requires someone who will not be cowed by false accusations and can, again, offer cover to the more timid in the face of that kind of demagoguery.