The pinnacle of Joe Biden's presidency was day one in Oval Office, when he confidently declared "America is back". He had said that as America rejoined the Paris climate agreement—an optimistic promise to reclaim global leadership. The lowest point of his Presidency was October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched its brutal attack on Israel. It was a stark reminder that American influence and security assurances, once taken for granted, were no longer what they used to be. It's the journey between those two dates that has come to define the chequered legacy of the 46th President of America.

Biden's credibility has gone up in flames in West Asia and he is in danger of leaving behind a dark legacy that his successor would try to erase from the pages of history. But his failures on other issues have also been shocking.

However, let's start with his sunshine moments first.

Last Friday, Biden tiptoed into Germany, almost unnoticed, to receive the country's highest civilian award for his contribution to trans-Atlantic relations. The world's most powerful leader shuffled along next to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier; their slow, tentative steps felt as though a ghostly presence was tagging along—a moment straight out of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land: "Who is the third who always walks beside you?"

Biden's farewell visit to Germany comes with a cloud of unease looming over Europe. The spectre of Donald Trump, their ‘tormentor-in-chief' so to speak, possibly returning to power has made Berlin and Europe jittery. They remember Trump's views on NATO all too well, which had left the European members wondering whether the US was serious about protecting Europe against a potential Russian attack.

The elusive third figure in Eliot's poem could just be Europe's collective dread of a Trump redux. Steinmeier still carries the scars from those years (2016-2020), recalling a time when the US-Europe bond was fraying. "...just a handful of years ago, the distance had grown so wide that we almost lost each other," he reminisced. Thankfully, to Germany and Europe's collective relief, Biden was quick to restore Europe's faith in........

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