The worst thing that President-elect Joe Biden can do right now is to spend any more time with election lawyers. The irritations of President Donald Trump’s unseemly rearguard action are already fading away. The challenge of governing the country will only grow. The ugly truth is that the new president’s inheritance is a much tougher one than most of Biden’s supporters realize — on two counts. First, as Covid-19 has revealed in painful detail, the U.S. is falling behind much of the world, not just in health care but also in most of the functions of government. Second, little of this falling behind is really Trump’s fault. The disruptive child being dragged out of the White House is more a symptom of what ails the U.S. than a cause. Merely removing him will not solve much. From this perspective, Biden should do what other great U.S. presidents have done when their country has started to fall behind: Look abroad and copy what works. For all the talk about American exceptionalism, the best American leaders have never been ashamed of learning from abroad, especially in times of trouble. The founding fathers carefully studied the world’s most successful political systems, particularly those of Britain, France and ancient Rome. James Madison pored over comparative constitutions while at Princeton, while John Adams and Thomas Jefferson drew on their experience as envoys to France. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/qt/live, or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app. Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: https://cor.us/surveys/27AF30 Connect with us on… YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Bloomberg Breaking News on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BloombergQuickTakeNews Twitter: https://twitter.com/quicktake Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quicktake Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quicktake