Humility: It's Joe Biden's Hole Card. It Carried Him to the White House.

Joe Biden is long on sincerity and humility. It was close--disappointingly close--but it carried him to the White House.

Hillary Clinton lacked it. As good a politician and as experienced in government as she was, she strutted on the stage not only because she believed she deserved the presidency, but because--not that a whole bunch of people didn't agree with her--the other party's candidate was so bad, so backwards, so clueless, that she already had it won. (Admit it--so did you)

Americans don't like that, especially those who aren't well-to-do. They don't like 'uppity.' They don't appreciate entitlement. They like grounded people. She didn't appear to be grounded. Her rhetoric didn't try to bring them in. Being a woman was, to her, a reason people should vote for her. She overestimated that by several miles.

The smears stuck too well, most of it undeserved, especially in retrospect. James Comey didn't help, either. She didn't grasp the gravity of all that.

She was a class act, but she didn't campaign with the energy others have had. Her campaign didn't appear well organized. There were far fewer yard signs up than in other campaigns. People were worried that Biden didn't carry much enthusiasm with him. It was a far cry from the nose-holding with which many voted for Clinton.

45 came from behind and nipped her, getting in through the back door of the Electoral College. The perfect campaign storm left us with horrible damage, which will continue in its final days.

She called his supporters "deplorable," thus giving them, in irony, another reason to double down on their self-pity and unite around it and him. She did not apologize. It did not imply strength, but instead her own cluelessness. She became a walking insult, ironically, instead of deflecting insults, even though her opponent was the master of insult, making fun of a physically challenged New York Times reporter as well (the hypocrisy of which is well documented and serves as a barrier upon which to find common ground). He got away with it all, including the Planet Hollywood tape. A cult formed around him, which will not be easily muted.

So we have had to endure four terrible years of a terrible president. But someone of decent character, someone of genuine humility because of what he has gone through, will interrupt 45's reign of error (I stole that from education guru Diane Ravitch, who entitled that as one of her books) and replace him.

Joe Biden has already had to bury a wife and two of his kids. Think about that. Think about the heartbreak. We might already have had him as president if his son Beau hadn't succumbed to cancer back in 2015. He was too shattered to mount a presidential run. But he bounced back even from that.

How he stayed in the Senate is beyond me, but he did, for six terms before becoming vice-president. His political experience in Congress will help a great deal as he bargains. The odds still are good that he will have to deal with the obstreperous Mitch McConnell; the undercard will be the Squad and the other Congressional progressives. All will be nipping at his heels. He'll deal with it.

But it's the attitude with which he does it that's going to matter. We're going to get stuff done, he's saying. That's why we're here. It's why, too, that he became the point man when Barack Obama got into tough spots and needed someone that people saw had better legislative chops. (No doubt racism played a part, too.) Consider the recovery package, the ACA, and gun control in the wake of Newtown. Biden played a big role in all three.

Biden began a strange campaign season strangely, almost completely in his basement. 45 wasted no time pointing it out, being recklessly without a mask and catching the virus he was supposed to be leading us out of, but markedly didn't. But Biden never abandoned common sense, never got into the ditch with 45's smearing, and stood up to him on the debate stage. 45's incompetence on the virus gave Biden a perfect single attack venue, and he took advantage of it.

It isn't as if he lacks ego: He tried to get the presidency for the third time. But he's been through so much in politics that beyond 45's expected flailing, he took the rest in stride. He never got too excited. He knew how to handle it, with the benefit of having watched his opponent for four years. He rose above it without arrogance.

But he learned from his mistakes. There were almost none of the expected Biden gaffes. There was no extreme rhetoric. Certainly the door was open for it, but he didn't take the bait. He approached the campaign as he will genuinely try to govern: With the righting of a ship that needs to be steered to calmer waters.

There will not be, at least from him, a government shutdown. There will not be, at least from him, tweets filled with innuendoes, lies, and insults, concocted at 4 a.m. There will be a reading and consideration of morning security briefings. There will not be meetings in which Cabinet appointees act like cowed, fawning toadies, describing what an honor it is to be personally connected to such a great president. 

There will not be blindly obedient, insulting, media-bashing press secretaries; there may even be regularly scheduled briefings. There will not be blatant violations of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, in which 45 has made millions just by being able to increase his brand (notice I still call him 45).

There will not be useless briefings on the virus in which the president commands the podium primarily to hear himself talk and look strong when in fact he was weak. Dr. Fauci and the C.D.C. may indeed take over and the administration may actually make its decisions by following science. Talk about entitlement: His kids will not be go-to but vacant people in dealing with foreign leaders.

He will enter government with a list of people to appoint, because filling positions means the government will be staffed with competent people, trained in something close to them--as opposed to 45, who gave away positions as political rewards. There will even be a dog. 

It's refreshing just to write this: He's going to act the way a president should act. You were starting to wonder if you'd ever see that anymore.

President Joe Biden. Sounds good to me. Sounds a whole lot better. He may not be great. But he'll be a president, not a budding autocrat, not a mafia-type don, not a strongman, not an emotional, temper-tossed trainwreck.

Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.

Mister Mark