Analysis: Why Joe Biden is already thinking about a second term
After all, Coons is one of Biden’s closest allies and advisers. Which means it’s pretty unlikely that he just sort of spouted off — days before Biden became president — about the 46th president’s plans to run again in 2024.
This was, without question, a concerted effort — and strategy — to get the word out that Biden has no plans to limit himself to a single term. And it’s a very smart strategy.
Why? Because the second that Biden — or one of his top surrogates — suggests that Biden, who, at 78, is by far the oldest person ever sworn in for a first presidential term, may not run again, he immediately becomes a lame duck. The clock starts ticking on the end of his term and Republicans begin the process of stalling as much as possible — knowing that Biden is going to be gone in less than four years.
“Former Vice President Joe Biden’s top advisers and prominent Democrats outside the Biden campaign have recently revived a long-running debate whether Biden should publicly pledge to serve only one term, with Biden himself signaling to aides that he would serve only a single term.
“While the option of making a public pledge remains available, Biden has for now settled on an alternative strategy: quietly indicating that he will almost certainly not run for a second term while declining to make a promise that he and his advisers fear could turn him into a lame duck and sap him of his political capital.”
And Biden spoke openly about his candidacy (and presidency) as a sort of generational bridge for the party and the country.
The truth is that no one — Biden included — knows what he and the country will look like in four years’ time. Did anyone think that 18 months ago that we would be in the grips of a global pandemic that has already killed more than 400,000 Americans? Exactly.
But words have impact. And Coons’ pledge that Biden not only could run again but it is “planning” to do so is very clearly meant to send a signal to every Democratic and Republican in Washington that this guy isn’t going anywhere — so it’s time to get to work with him on the problems facing the country.
