But since D.C. politics is exactly like that, those whispers picked up speed and volume as Biden’s communication department fumbled the president’s message in his first year and as the former president — banned from Twitter — refused to go gentle into that good night. Our nation, for the last year, has been overwhelmed by the politics of two aging septuagenarians — one a con man and grifting narcissist and the other a centrist who believes in “possibilities.”

The susurrus surrounding Biden now includes many of the Democratic faithful who have gone back to wondering whether he is up to the challenge. “We don’t know — when he shows up, are we going to get someone barely there, or someone who’s on his game?” an influential Democratic activist said to me this week. Biden recently held a two-hour news conference to begin the New Year, and his performance in that marathon session helped quiet some of the more outlandish concerns. But reports over the weekend that Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison is “frustrated, isolated and trapped” in his job have helped renew the whisper campaign. Harrison fired back against the critics, while an NBC article reported “deep frustration among Democrats that the White House’s political operation has failed to communicate a coherent message to state parties.”