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It began awkwardly with teleprompter remarks, nosedived when he mixed up the name of his vice-president, calling her Trump, and then recovered to a meandering but passable performance.
If we were scoring Joe Biden for his much-anticipated press conference two weeks after his disastrous debate performance it'd probably be about a five out of 10.
And that's the worst of all worlds for those within the Democratic party who've come to the conclusion that it's time for Biden to do what he said he'd do and be a transitional president, handing on to the next generation.
Asked what changed and why he hasn't come good on that promise, Biden said he was the man to meet this moment in history.
"What changed was the gravity of the situation I inherited, in terms of the economy, our foreign policy and domestic division," he said.
It's worth remembering Biden was the guy who said his experience reaching across the aisle in his 36 years as a senator would mean he could help heal the divisions that tore the country apart in 2020.
"We have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are not our enemies — they are Americans," he said in November 2020 after winning the election.
Of course, that was before January 6 and before Donald Trump, the real comeback kid in all of this, rose again to become the frontrunner and then the Republican presumptive nominee for his third shot at winning the White House.
Boasts and Bidenesque meandering
Biden acknowledged during the roughly hour-long press conference that it was "important" that he "allay fears".
"By seeing, let them see me out there. Let me see them… you know…"
And there he was off meandering in Bidenesque style.
He then seemed to start an internal conversation with his critics as the journalists in the room careened forward trying to follow the verbal twists and turns delivered in fairly quiet tones.
"For the longest time it was, 'Biden's not prepared to sit with us unscripted, Biden's not prepared to… anyway.'"
He went on to say that he had been out and about, apparently allaying concerns.
"We've done over 20 major events from Wisconsin, to North Carolina… anyway."
The trouble is these weren't the sort of events that allayed fears at all.
Apart from his interview a week ago with George Stephanopoulos, Biden's appearances have been largely scripted, his remarks delivered via teleprompter.
His claim to the contrary again suggested he was unaware or in denial about the depth of concerns about his mental and physical fitness.
There was a lot in the press conference that was a lot like the 22 minutes he sat with Stephanopoulos in the ABC America interview.
Here was a man full of boasts about his record and his achievements.
"I believe I'm the best qualified to govern and I think I'm the best qualified to win," he said.
"Most presidential historians give me credit for having accomplished more than most any president since Johnson, and maybe before that."
Biden blames staff for busy schedule
It sounded at times, well, almost Trumpian.
Asked for his response to critics who said he was just like Trump in that he was putting his personal interests above the national interest, Biden declared them "just wrong".
"I don't think those critics know what they're talking about."
There were also more apparent excuses for Biden's abysmal debate performance.
In the firing line this time, his staff, for apparently over-scheduling him.
"I love my staff, but they add things, they add things all the time at the very end," he said.
"I'm catching hell from my wife."
Urgh. That old trope.
Where Biden was better was on the foreign policy questions he was asked, about China, Gaza, Ukraine.
The tension was palpable that he was about to mix up a country or leader during these lengthy answers, but he was able to talk about complex issues in a coherent way.
Insight into why he is hanging on
Biden today was a man digging in.
There was no real sense that he was levelling with the growing number of outspoken critics in his party and the majority of voters who in polls say he should stand aside and is too old for the job.
There was a moment when he gave an insight into one of the reasons why he might be so stubbornly pushing ahead.
"I always have an inclination, whether I was playing sports or doing politics, just to keep going, not stop … I've just got to pace myself a little more."
He was talking about his schedule, but he might as well have been talking about his dogged determination to stay put.
A few more Democratic members of Congress have come out since the press conference saying the president should make way for another candidate, but the floodgates haven't opened.
If the party wants him to leave it's going to take someone senior to go on the record or put the case more forcefully to Biden that his time is up.
He may have given them a tiny opening there.
Asked whether if his team showed him data that Vice-President Harris would fare better against Trump he would reconsider his position, he said "no".
"Unless they came back and said there's no way you can win me."
"No one's saying that," he said leaning into the microphone with another bizarre Bidenism — the stage whisper.
Not yet, they're not, but that could change if the poll numbers keep getting grimmer.
For the moment the campaign rolls on.
Next stop Detroit, then an interview early next week with NBC.
There's a groundhog day feel to this now.
But as Biden said himself tonight, "a lot can happen" between now and November.
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