Jill Biden always seems to be upstaged by the enormity of someone else's history-making presence. As second lady, Dr Biden was arguably the emotional core of the Obama administration's outreach to military families. As the mother of a veteran, she could speak personally about the toll their service takes on their loved ones. But the country was naturally focused on Michelle Obama, a groundbreaking first lady, and had little bandwidth to deeply consider Biden's effort.

Now that Biden has moved into the White House, there's more history being made around her. Kamala Harris is the nation's first female vice-president. Her husband, Doug Emhoff, fills the newly named role of second gentleman. The country is in such a historically divided, volatile, damaged state that almost all of the inaugural traditions and formalities have fallen away. And the symbolism long attached to the first lady as healing and consoling has been tarnished.

Washington Post