Lord Randolph Churchill, Winston’s father, summarized the political career of Benjamin Disraeli, Britain’s great 19th century Conservative prime minister, as “failure, failure, failure, partial success, renewed failure, ultimate and complete triumph.”

There is something in this sequence that parallels President Joe Biden’s half-century in politics, although in his case ultimate and complete triumph applies only to securing the presidency, not to his policies, leadership qualities, or the substantive and moral consequences of his occupancy of that office.