Would anything change for the US and the world if Biden wasn’t president?

It’s sometimes interesting to play “what if,” especially with pivotal moments that didn’t seem so meaningful at the time. For instance, what if Adolf Hitler had become a successful artist? More recently – and more to the point – what if Joe Biden had been expelled from law school when he got caught plagiarizing a writing assignment?

The decision by Syracuse University in 1965 to let Biden, then 22, repeat the course, rather than be kicked out of school, didn’t appear to be consequential at the time. As one of the worst students (ranking No. 76 out of 85) at a mediocre law school, Biden probably seemed like someone of little consequence, a guy who might be chasing ambulances or doing estate planning for elderly clients back in his home state of Delaware – if he managed to graduate and pass the bar…