After Biden’s closed-door meeting and a public statement in which he tried to portray progress by citing a sketchy “framework” for the social spendathon, which includes $550 billion worth of climate projects, the real power emerged from the shadows. Sanders, the Vermont socialist, flatly rejected the president’s request to pass the separate infrastructure deal first and urged his fellow travelers in the House to say no, which they promptly did.

So the man who is supposed to be the leader of the free world cannot even lead his own party, meaning Biden headed for Europe bearing nothing except embarrassment.

On Friday in Rome, he was again the pleader-in-chief, this time seeking forgiveness from French President Emmanuel Macron after a rupture in relations over a nuclear submarine deal in which Australia backed out of a deal with France and switched to one with the US and Great Britain.

The deal enraged France and hurt Macron politically just months before an April election. Video showed Biden looking like a scolded, sheepish child as he called events around the Australian deal “clumsy” and confessed he was not up to speed when the deal was announced.

So if the president isn’t up to speed on major events involving key allies, who is up to speed and, most important, who is making the decisions?