HIS PRESIDENCY IS DONE:

At the moment, the former President's hold over the G.O.P. remains the major obstacle to Joe Biden achieving any return to the status quo ante-Donald.Photograph by Doug Mills / Getty

Eight days into his tenure, President Joe Biden has not occupied my every waking thought--nor, I suspect, yours. He has not insulted anyone, as far as I'm aware. He has not played golf instead of working, or held late-night counselling sessions with cable-television anchors, or caused a rupture in our relationship with Australia. He had a friendly call with Angela Merkel, and a stern one with Vladimir Putin. He went to church on Sunday, and stopped for bagels in Georgetown. His tweets have been sparse and so anodyne that a writer for the Washington Post compared them to the sayings that come inside fortune cookies. He has returned policy wonks and message discipline to the White House. Technocrats are in; Rudy Giuliani is out.

In some ways, Biden has already fulfilled his first, and arguably most compelling, campaign promise: being the un-Trump.

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