After the turmoil introduced into American society by the election of Donald Trump in 2016, there was no hope that Joe Biden could get everything back to normal. My desire, however, was that Biden would at least bring a presidency that didn’t add to the chaos and dysfunction. In this, he has met my expectations. The Biden administration has so far set a modern record for lack of drama. We haven’t seen cabinet members resigning (or who should resign) for either ethical or performance-related reasons. We haven’t seen social media used to distract and divide. With the exception of the chaotic exit from Afghanistan, this administration has been a model of calm efficiency, and even that fiasco can rightfully be laid in large part on his predecessor’s footsteps.

Biden also offered the promise of a less partisan edge to our politics, and he’s delivered here too, even if he hasn’t performed any miracles. That he managed to navigate the crisis over the debt ceiling and bring it in for a landing with several days to spare is highly impressive. The final vote in both the House and Senate was bipartisan–so much so that it may allow Speaker Kevin McCarthy to survive decapitation by his own right flank, which is something I didn’t really see as very likely to happen. If the Freedom Caucus in the House really is truly tamed, that is a major accomplishment in restoring some sanity and functionality to Congress, and Biden will deserve a lot of credit for creating the environment and mechanism that made it possible.

As David Ignatius points out in the Washington Post, the president has repeatedly defied expectations about how much Democrats and Republicans could work together, “First with a bipartisan infrastructure bill, then with a modest gun-control measure, then with the bipartisan Chips Act, and finally with the budget agreement.”

It bothers me that Biden doesn’t seem to get much love or credit for these accomplishments, if public polling can be believed. It surprises me somewhat because I feel there was a real thirst for this kind of change after four years of Trump. That thirst is why I believed Biden would win the Democratic nomination in 2020 and the presidency, and yet there’s a sense in which he’s not really making either side happy and the middle isn’t making up the difference. He’s also just a cultural mismatch for the times. He defines Old School in an era that’s relentlessly churning out new ways to communicate, to get ahead, to make a name for oneself.

To me, I wasn’t looking for a champion of my values and priorities as much as a physician who could patch up our national wounds and give us some time and space to recover from the Trump Era. On that score, I have to give Biden the highest grades, even if it’s kind of an impossible task. In the end, he’ll only be successful if the American people ratify what he’s done and reelect him. I really hope they do.