At the Democratic National Convention in August, which seemed more a Michelle Obama show than anything else, he seemed to have faded. Major papers commented that the party had left Bill Clinton behind.

Now there he was at the presidential inauguration, a tall, handsome figure, wrapped in black, seated next to his wife, Hillary, who must be wondering how many of these tortuous ceremonies she will have to endure in her life. Every time she sits as a spectator, she must be wanting more participation. Much more participation. But that is not to be her destiny.

Bill Clinton though is satiated. He had his two terms in office. From 1992, when he first became president, Democrats have been in the White House at least 20 years (until 2025). Republicans on the other hand have controlled the presidency for only 12 years. So Democrats have led the executive branch almost twice as much as Republicans.

Let’s go back to 1960. From 1960 to 1992, the Dems had the White House for 12 years; the Republicans for 20. An exact reversal.

Who brought on the Democratic revival? Who created the modern Democratic party? An unknown governor from Arkansas did it. He had little knowledge of DC politics when he became president. Yet, he was the first candidate in the last 40 years to unseat a sitting president. He focused on the economy. It was the economy, Stupid, he cried, and he won on that basis.

Before him, Democrats were always considered tax and spend liberals, unable to manage budgets. Clinton is the only president alive as well as in living memory who created a budget surplus. Even Barack Obama, who built a solid economy, or Donald Trump, who built a roaring one, failed to do that. The deficit just balloons and balloons. Dems or Republicans, they just print more money and spend, spend, spend.

The Dems were also painted by the Republicans as being weak on the national security front. Not so Clinton, he wasn’t weak there either.

If you compare the last few presidents, the only one who truly seemed to love working the ropelines was Clinton. George W Bush never seemed at ease being a politician. Barack Obama was the professor, the pontificator, who got so lost in his celebrity and his soaring rhetoric that he forgot that he was a politician first and foremost.

Funnily enough, only Trump, with his rallies, seemed to feed off crowds in as manifest a way as Clinton did. Ah, those rallies. Let future presidents remember that they must never engage in those Trump-style rallies. They evoked memories of other rallies held by another autocrat in the not too distant past.

Bill Clinton also reached across the aisle more often and more effectively than any other recent president. That’s why he’s sometimes called the most effective president of the modern era.

Did he make mistakes during his wife’s two campaigns for the presidency? He sure did. His political nous seemed to have deserted him then. South Carolina sometimes decides the Democratic primaries as it did for Joe Biden this time. In 2008, Barack Obama was facing the South Carolinian primary when Clinton allegedly made racist remarks, which turned the primary on its head, forcing blacks to ditch Hillary for Obama. Hillary never recovered thereafter.

It’s a strange thing, these racist remarks. Today, some are painting the 74 million people who voted for Trump as racists. Many of the people doing so are white liberals, like Clinton is, who feel that if they were to demonize Trump supporters, they would have exorcised themselves of any racism. But before they point a finger at others, they should note that three point back at themselves.

As VP, Joe Biden had struck a pact with Obama. Biden was the experienced man; Obama a relative rookie. The pact was that before Obama took any major decision, Biden would be the last person he would consult with. It seems that Kamala Harris has reached a similar accord with Biden. But Harris has a very thin resume. She has been a prosecutor all her life. She has little knowledge of domestic policy, much less of foreign.

What advice can she give Biden? It seems that right now she’s learning on the job how to be just the VP. Obama basked in celebrityhood. Harris seems to be doing the same. Books are being published, overnight, about her. She’s on the cover of fashion magazines. TV documentaries paint her in glowing light. Is this any way to begin her tenure as VP? Why doesn’t Biden ask her to calm down?

Biden has said that the nation faces as big a challenge today as it did during the Great Depression or at the onset of World War II. Biden therefore needs firm counsel. There’s no person more ready to take up the challenge that America is facing today than Bill Clinton. Unfortunately he cannot be president anymore. But he certainly should be the last person Biden should call before taking any major decision.

Bill Clinton built the modern Democratic party. He moved it from a party of left-wingers to one occupying a centrist position. Today, once again, left-wingers threaten to derail the Biden presidency. Biden should know who to turn to. He may need to be reminded that he would not be president today but for the pathbreaking presidency of Bill Clinton.

The writer is an expert on energy and contributes regularly to publications in India and overseas.