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The reality is that presidents are rarely remembered for their Electoral College vote share.

The drama and excitement of election night, of the count that follows and the period before a new president comes to office are usually overshadowed by the events of the presidency itself.

Even George W Bush, who took office in one of the narrowest and most controversial victories in history, is mostly remembered for what happened during his eight years in the Oval Office.

So will it be too for Joe Biden. For all the drama of the past few days, of the counting and the polls and the race to 270 Electoral College votes, provided no lawsuit prevents him from getting into the White House his time in office will be marked by events of state too imponderable to predict.

Even so, it is worth reflecting for a moment on this election, if only because these moments every four years give us a window into what the political make up of this country is.

It is possible to look on with dismay, and many are, at the division in the country. Yet when you look at the data beneath the election one can also tell a more cheering story.

This is a country where the people are more engaged than ever with politics.

Despite the threat of COVID-19, despite the disruption to their lives and the long lines to get to ballot boxes and the administrative hurdles to register - more Americans voted in this election than ever before.

There were no riots or major unrest - at least at the time of writing. This was no landslide result for Joe Biden, but it was a landslide result for political engagement.

It also underlined that the country is shifting. The demography is changing - and the political appetites of different sections of the population are changing too.

Donald Trump won an unprecedented share of the non-white vote, especially with Latino voters. He shored up his support among many white working class Americans. By the same token Joe Biden won the biggest share of votes for a Democratic candidate in Texas for many, many years.

Look too at his vote share in Georgia - a state which has hitherto been reliably Republican.

These victories - some of them beneath the surface - underline that the map of American politics is shifting.

It is not implausible that Texas soon becomes a legitimate Democratic target as younger, more metropolitan voters become more predominant.

These shifts are unlikely to define Joe Biden's presidency, but then, of course, these elections rarely do. In recent years much of the rust belt has swung towards the Republicans but much of the rest of the country has changed too.

We will all remember the drama of these days of vote counting for some time - for good reason. There never has been an election like this, where the momentum swung one way and then the next; where it looked so unpredictable.

That's because the structure of the votes - made up of an extraordinary quantity of mail-in ballots - which meant some states turned red then blue then red again in an extraordinary roller coaster ride.

But now the ride is over what matters is that America has chosen its president.

The country is divided - yes. But which country is not today? The world has undergone a decade and a bit of lean economic times and it is now facing a pandemic.

These periods are always defined by division and frustration. But contrary to the conventional wisdom, things tend to get better, at least eventually.

There is no reason to suggest that will not happen this time around either.

And while Donald Trump might have attempted (without any basis of evidence) to paint this process as one marred by fraud, instead it seems much more appropriate to depict this as a moment of triumph for the democratic process.

Millions of Americans came out in unprecedented numbers to vote; their votes were counted by officials working under greater pressure than ever before.

The system seems to have worked and the election has its winner.