so that's number one. number two, what about the extreme partisanship with which everything, including foreign policy, has become sort of transformed in recent years in washington? are republicans traditionally willing to be tough on russia but now have a leader and enormous faction in trump and his supporters who have essentially been pro-putin in recent years. and so how is that going to affect biden's ability to speak as the leader of a united country that is divided internally. so i think it's not at all clear, you know, what the upside politically is for biden but there's enormous risk for him both domestically politically and internationally, keeping europeans on the same page is very difficult. big news this morning which is germany canceling the nord stream 2 pipeline. that's something that biden wanted. that obama and trump wanted. never happened until now. so that's a big, big step forward in terms of allied unity