The president’s team must face the reality of what a second term would look like. A mandate that was already burdened with political disadvantage will be much more difficult because of questions about his age.
Second terms have rarely been successful endeavours in recent American presidential history. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton saw their re-election afterglow quickly dissipate in the face of scandal – Iran-Contra for Reagan, Monica Lewinsky for Clinton – while George W. Bush had his ground down by an unwinnable war in Iraq.
Even Barack Obama, whose second term was tarnished neither by scandal nor war, found it nearly impossible to repeat the legislative triumphs of his first amid increasingly hysterical partisan warfare.
