In what appears to be a remake of Aesop's tale of the hare and the tortoise, Donald Trump has dominated the headlines since the US presidential election. That is a strange departure from the usual poll aftermath, in which the loser is seen as yesterday's man and attention is focused on what the winner plans to do.
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Trump's bizarre antics, which have included an ongoing refusal to publicly accept the election result despite the fact the formal transition process is under way, have given the President-elect the clear air needed to get his thoughts together.
Ordinarily Democrats would be bitterly divided, as the liberals and conservatives struggled to dominate the incoming cabinet. That hasn't happened, even though early cabinet picks suggest there has been a lot of horse trading.
The best way to describe many selections, including special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry, secretary of state Antony Blinken, treasury secretary Janet Yellen, and homeland security head Alejandro Mayorkas, is that they are moderates.
While none would have been preferred candidates in a Bernie Saunders cabinet their selections have been influenced by the fact they have never gone to war against the Democrats' left wing and, as such, are unlikely to cause friction and controversy.
Many of them also come with the benefit, like Biden, of decades of experience in Washington and elsewhere, and a reasonable assurance they won't be shown the door the first time they fall out with, or even just disagree with, the commander-in-chief.
Mr Blinken, a former deputy secretary of state and national security adviser during the Obama administration, has been around for a long time, having served on Bill Clinton's White House staff in the 1990s. A "committed internationalist" and critic of Brexit, he is likely to adopt a much more multilateral approach to foreign affairs than that pursued by the Trump administration.
The incoming president's belief that 'America is strongest when it works with its allies' marks a welcome change after four years.
That has to be excellent news for Australia, coming as it does on top of Biden's recent commitment to "see the US retake its global role" and to "strengthen its alliances in the Asia-Pacific". It is a pretty good bet that Scott Morrison and Marise Payne will be much happier with a consultative secretary of state working in this space than the more colourful approach adopted by Mike Pompeo and his predecessors.
The incoming president's belief that "America is strongest when it works with its allies" marks a welcome change after four years during which it often seemed that Trump was more comfortable talking to, and taking advice from, dictators and adversaries than those on his own side.
"America is back, ready to lead the world, not to retreat from it... that's how we truly keep America safe without engaging in needless military conflicts, and [while keeping] our adversaries in check," he said.
All of that said, it remains to be seen which, if any, of the outgoing administration's policy settings are about to undergo a sudden and dramatic change. Given Biden, like Trump, has been strongly critical of China, and sees its rise as a threat to western interests, initial tweaks are more likely to be about style rather than substance.
That said, many of America's elites are liking what they are hearing. Wednesday's record 30,000-point Dow Jones result was as much about the news that the transition was finally under way as it was about vaccine euphoria.
Confidence in the incoming president's ability to perform is already influencing the US, and the world, economy in a positive and tangible way.