Joe Biden was an inch away from re-election.

Now he is an inch away from defeat.

Had Donald Trump not tilted his head slightly, the bullet that singed his right ear at the rally in Butler, Pa., a week ago today would have hit him in the head and probably killed him.

And, just two days before their party convention, the Republicans would have been without a candidate, and Joe Biden without an opponent, an opponent who was handily beating him in all the polls.

The Republicans, meeting in the convention in Milwaukee, would certainly have scurried around to nominate a last ditch, substitute candidate to replace Trump — someone, anyone — but it would have been too late.

All talk among Democrats that a senile Biden should not seek re-election would have stopped, and Biden, despite his abysmal record, would suddenly have become the favorite to win the 2024 election.

But Trump did tilt his head and the bullet just nicked him as it whizzed by.

Instead of killing him, the shot seen around the world, and his extraordinary reaction to it, only made him stronger. His acceptance speech Thursday night was an example of that.

America has never seen anything like it.

He was shot before thousands, and on live television. He went down and people thought he might be dead.

Then there he was, a once and future president, being carried off the platform by the Secret Service, under a waving American flag with a blue sky in the background, bleeding from his ear, shouting “fight, fight, fight,” and defiantly waving his fist to show the world he was alive.

It was a picture for the ages.

You got the feeling that had not the Secret Service hustled him away, Trump would have climbed back on his feet, wiped the blood off his face, raised his fist and resumed his speech.

As it was and despite all the confusion, his supporters chanted “Fight, fight, fight” and “USA, USA, USA” as Trump was whisked away.

It is remarkable that Trump was on the stage at the open-air rally in Butler, Pa., in the first place given that his campaign had been warned earlier of a potential Iranian assassination threat.

And even though Trump was given additional Secret Service protection, the Secret Service failed to protect him.

Given one political assassination or assassination attempt after another, it is as though the Secret Service is running — or  doesn’t run — like the MBTA, one breakdown after another.

It is no wonder. The Secret Service comes under control of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas who runs the agency like he runs security at the southern border.

And Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, as Biden claims? Hardly.  A threat to Biden? Surely.

In the blink of an eye Trump became America’s wounded warrior, a leader willing to take the hit to Make America Great Again.

Neither Hollywood nor the showman Trump could have scripted or staged it any better. That is because this was real, and not make believe or pretend.

And if it were a movie, you can bet that Georg Clooney would not be playing Trump. Trump would play himself.

It was also the most botched Secret Service operation in history.  No one, including the Secret Service, saw Lee Harvey Oswald on the sixth floor of the book depository in Dallas as he prepared to fire on President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

Everyone it seems, except the Secret Service, saw Thomas Matthew Crook, 20, with a gun on a rooftop 150 yards from where Trump was speaking.

At the Kennedy assassination, the Secret Service had armed men on the rooftops of buildings overlooking Dealey Plaza where Kennedy’s motorcade passed through. But nobody saw Oswald.

Unlike Dallas, scores of people at the Trump rally pointed at, shouted and warned about an armed man on the unguarded rooftop 150 yards from Trump for two minutes, but nobody, including the Secret Service, did anything about it. Nor did anyone process information about his prior whereabouts.

Then Crook, the shooter, opened fire, grazing Trump, killing retired firefighter Corey Comperatore and wounding two others. Crook was then killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Trump somehow survived. Joe Biden won’t.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

U.S. Secret Service agents surround the stage as other agents cover Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)