If Joe Biden is a one-term president, I can get on board

Joe Biden is 77. If he manages to become elected the 46th President of the United States, he will be sworn in at the age of 78, making him the oldest first-term president in history (the current US president enjoys such bragging rights at the moment). The public school system in America is a collective nightmare with respect to teaching mathematics, but even I can count up to the age Biden will be when it would be time for a re-election bid: 82. Did anyone realistically anticipate he would go for a second term at that age?

I thought in the Trump era, we’d decided not to bother with pretense anymore — but based on the reaction to a recent Politico story about Biden reportedly signaling to advisers that he would be a one-term president, maybe not.

According to Politico’s Ryan Lizza, the Biden campaign considered making this a public pledge but eventually instead settled on “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.”

The candidate and campaign have since responded in ways that suggest they are very much afraid of him being perceived as a lame duck. "I don't have plans on one term,” Biden told reporters between campaign stops in Nevada. "I'm not even there yet.”

Deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield tweeted: "Lots of chatter out there on this so just want to be crystal clear: this is not a conversation our campaign is having and not something VP Biden is thinking about.” And campaign manager Greg Schultz said: “This is not a conversation we are having among people who actually are running the campaign.”

But, as AP reporter Meg Kinnard noted, Biden wouldn’t commit to two terms as recently as October.

While Biden and co pretend not to be thinking about it, others have expressed their concerns in essays with titles like “If Joe Biden doesn’t want to serve two terms, he shouldn’t run for president” and “Why Joe Biden committing to one term would be a very big mistake.” There are of course, numerous tweets echoing similar sentiments. So many people are so worried that the septuagenarian candidate who has run an entire campaign on being an elder statesman may now have to acknowledge the downsides of being advanced in age.

To quote the old man in question, “Come on, Jack.”

Although Joe Biden has never explicitly said he would be a one-term president, he has been selling himself and his candidacy with a specific subtext from the beginning.

In his announcement video, Biden recounted the deadly clash between white supremacists and counter-protesters at a 2017 gathering in Charlottesville, after which President Trump said there were “some very fine people on both sides.”

“In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had seen in our lifetime,” Biden declared, then adding: “The core values of this nation — our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America America — is at stake. That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”

This entire time Biden has been selling himself as an old hand who can save our nation from the brink of permanent, disastrous change. Should he be a one-term president, he would live up to the underlying promise of his campaign: to save the nation from Trump and serve as a transitional figure for a new generation.

While I understand those “lame duck” concerns, I’d be less worried about whatever time limits Biden has as president and more concerned about his thinking if he became president (say, his unshakeable belief in the inherent goodness of the Republican Party.) He may have gotten heavy assists from advisers and Mitch McConnell, but Trump’s first term has shown a lot can be done in a relatively short amount of time. Biden could equally get things done in a single term, and it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he then handed over to a fresher face.

Millions of people are exhausted by our TV show president and just want him to go away. Contempt for Trump is what has carried Biden for so long — and unless something significant changes, it will continue to. A significant amount of voters — black voters in particular — have astutely concluded that Joe Biden may well be the best way to get rid of the delusional, dangerous man in the White House. And they are probably right.

Don’t consider this an endorsement of Joe Biden. It’s more like begrudged acceptance of a potential political outcome for several reasons — all of whom make my head explode. While I personally believe the Democratic Party would benefit from a more progressive candidate on top of the ticket, if it were to be Joe Biden, I can see a situation where he uses his position as head of party to help reimagine it for a future generation.

Imagine him tapping Stacey Abrams or Kamala Harris to his ticket to help offset the party’s lack of black women in high leadership positions (in spite of black women being their most supporting voting bloc). Or Julián Castro heading Homeland Security to help undo the damage both the Trump and Obama administrations have done with regard to immigration policy. I don’t know if this will really curry much favor with voters not enthused by the idea of President Biden, but it can make the thought less painful.

Joe Biden’s legacy was transformed thanks to the political ascension of Barack Obama — so much so that he may finally coast his way to the presidency as a result. If he manages to pull it off, the least he could do is use his time to be true to the promise of his campaign. And then pay it forward to the next generation.