2020 Race: How normal can a Joe Biden presidency really be?

At 78 years old by Inauguration Day, it’s inconceivable that Joe Biden would run for a second term. So then what happens?

Every presidential campaign offers a sales pitch. Hillary Clinton’s was experience; Barack Obama called her “the most qualified person ever to run for president.” Donald Trump’s was “Make America Great Again.”

In 1920 Warren G. Harding promised a “return to normalcy.” Joe Biden hasn’t used that phrase, but many of his supporters have. “Biden is running on open nostalgia,” David Graham wrote in the Atlantic last year. Mr. Biden summed up this appeal in his May 2019 campaign announcement: “The country is sick of the division. They’re sick of the fighting. They’re sick of the childish behaviour … All they want is their president, their senators, their representatives, to do their jobs!”

But how normal would a Biden presidency be? At 78 by Inauguration Day, he would be the oldest president in history. (Donald Trump turned 74 last month; Ronald Reagan was 77 when he left office.) His age has led to unusual questions. When a reporter asked Mr. Biden last week if he had been “tested for some degree of cognitive decline,” the candidate answered: “I’ve been tested, and I’m constantly tested.”

The Associated Press wondered in October if Mr. Biden planned to seek a second term as an octogenarian. “Asked whether he would pledge to only serve one term if elected,” the wire service reported, “Biden said he wouldn’t make such a promise but noted he wasn’t necessarily committed to seeking a second term if elected in 2020.”

Politico reported in December that “four people who regularly talk to Biden” agree “it is virtually inconceivable that he will run for re-election.” One unnamed “well-known Democratic strategist” said: “It’s crazy for him to run for a second term. It’s a bit crazy to run for a first.”

That may explain why the Biden campaign is hyping his choice of running mate, with social-media ads that implausibly promise donors “you’ll hear about my VP pick first.” Commentators like Ronald Brownstein and Thomas Friedman have urged the Democrat to break tradition by announcing his cabinet nominees ahead of the election — implying an expectation that a President Biden wouldn’t be running the show.

The last president to leave office voluntarily after one term or less was Chester A. Arthur, who retired because of ill health. Surely a return to normalcy doesn’t mean turning the clock back to 1885.

The Wall St Journal