Joe Biden hits 79. Is he a two-term president?
- Joe Biden, the oldest US president ever, has said publicly he intends to run for re-election
- Speculation about potential successors focuses on Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg
The veteran Democrat, who turns 79 on Saturday, has said publicly he intends to run for re-election but there has been persistent speculation that he could change his mind given his advanced years.
There is usually little intrigue around the nomination when a US president is still in his first term, as no occupant of the White House has declined to seek re-election since Lyndon Johnson more than 50 years ago.
But Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term, and potential successors and their sponsors are already circling, seeing another four years as an assignment too far in Biden’s storied political career.
In a new Politico/Morning Consult poll, only 40 per cent of voters surveyed agreed with the statement that Biden “is in good health”, while 50 per cent disagreed – a 29-point shift over a year.
“If his health declines, as sometimes happens in one’s 80s, his plans might change,” said David Greenberg, a journalism and history professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey.