Obama aiming to gain himself (and by association, Biden) to progressives here?

I do not imagine that politicians want to leave a legacy of destruction and death in their wake, so maybe I am reading too much into this. Nonetheless, Barack Obama refers in his memoir to that which he commanded as a "machine".

I gather that he refers to the machinery of the U.S. government in this moment, and it strikes me that the only other person I recall making reference to government as a machine is the radical, anti-war progressive named Randolph Bourne (1886 - 1919). In his unfinished essay titled The State ( 1918 ), Bourne writes:

Do Obama's words make you feel that government is mechanical, or of some automatic operation that cannot be impeded, rather than something that is lead by and operated by people with choices to make? I will say that as I read the words I empathized with him, but I am reluctant to let an emotional appeal detract from current circumstances.

Biden is likely to be in-office come January, and I think Obama wants to improve his image to help recapture the disillusioned progressives who did not want Biden; the ones who view he and Obama as having very much the same political brain. Is this the design here or do you read his words as coming from a place of vulnerable honesty?