This week has been a pretty good microcosm of President Biden’s term so far. 

He beat expectations by delivering a bipartisan deal to lift the debt ceiling and saw a boffo jobs report that, while showing some cooling in the red-hot hiring market, still reflected the best numbers since the initial post-pandemic hiring spree. 

The once far-fetched-sounding idea that economic growth could outlast inflation is by no means assured, but it is at least now very much in the realm of the possible. And with a deal in place to avoid the chance of another debt crisis until after the 2024 election, that’s at least one recession trigger off the table for Biden.

But, the president also collapsed like a mudslide onstage at the Air Force Academy graduation, a fall that provided a photo and video that would make anyone wince. Worse, it came on the day when Biden was supposed to be taking a victory lap on his deft debt deal. The commander-in-chief-struts storyline turned into elderly-president-claims-no-injuries-from-fall.