Again, I'm not saying he was my choice or he's a great choice, just don't believe he is evil in the same way as a Trump or certainly other leaders out there. Also I'm not sure that Larry Summers is actually an advisor or not, but yeah that guy sucks.
I agree and think just about everyone involved in the 94 crime bill would acknowledge the outcomes have been a disaster.
As to what he's been good at, in more recent times he's credited with pushing Obama to act on same sex marriage, and made the first public support comments from WH. And yes, that is a different position than he took in the 90's. He apparently led a lot of the negotiations to get the ACA passed. He's pushed climate change bills and seems to have that as a key component of his platform.
But it doesn't hugely matter, because the only choice is him or Trump. And he will bring in actual experts to do their jobs, have full time people serving on the cabinet, listen to the intelligence community, work with world leaders, not scrap the ACA, push climate change and so forth.
To me it's like the US is stuck out in the ocean drowning after the Trump ship sailed away, a beaten up little whaler is offering a hand up, but some folks are saying well it's not a luxury vessel, so we'd rather drown.