Peter van Onselen's lost none of his deft analytical touch.

He is completely disconnected from reality.

This bloke is a Professor of Politics, Channel Ten's political editor and regular columnist in The Australian.

He's also off the planet.

Here are a few extracts from his thesis on contemporary American politics.

• Biden’s comeback is exactly what America needs
• Trump is a radical masquerading as mainstream (mirror Peter)
• Trump is simply a disgraceful person
• Trump is a child in an adult body (mirror-much?)
• Trump will be seen as a mere aberration (hello!)
• Trump is an offensive buffoon
• Biden would make light work of someone as loose and offensive as Trump

While sections of the conservative reactionary right have been quick to criticise Biden on all manner of fronts, the simple fact is that he is a centrist with governing credentials. Whatever his faults — which like most people are many — he is no Donald Trump, no Bernie Sanders. Both of whom are radicals masquerading as mainstream politicians.

Sanders — who may still win but Tuesday’s results suggest otherwise — is a genuine socialist with a radical agenda for change. While sections of the forgotten people in the United States welcome the shake-up his candidacy offers, it would profoundly restructure the American political culture. Indeed, the ideological positioning of the world’s superpower.

Trump is simply a disgraceful person: his comments about women, opponents, international leaders he doesn’t get along with. In short he is a child in an adult body. And that’s before we even get to the ideological embarrassment of supposed conservatives supporting some of Trump’s policy agenda which is anything but conservative or free market in nature.

Biden, if nominated as the Democrats candidate for President, gives US citizens the chance to replace Trump with someone who is not a risk, or indeed a partisan over-reaction to Trump.

If Biden succeeds against Trump, relegating the billionaire to a one-term wonder, history won’t be kind to Trump. He will be seen as a mere aberration. His failures will be highlighted.

If, however, Trump beats Biden, then the American people have no excuses. Trump is theirs to own and explain away in the years ahead. Because Trump won’t have just beaten Hillary Clinton — a tainted divisive figure to be sure. Trump will have defeated a former VP with a formidable track record — someone who traditionally would make light work of someone as loose and offensive as Trump. Which speaks to how much America has changed.

We shall see where the race goes from here. We know America is a different land than it used to be, partly a blowback against the establishment, partly because of the way Trump’s post-truth world has changed the political culture.

The odds still favour a Trump victory, even if he again fails to carry the popular vote. But a Biden candidacy gives America the chance to decide once and for all what kind of country it wants to be. A chance to offload an offensive buffoon without replacing him with a threat to American liberalism when doing so.

ENDS