• Joe Biden is likely to run for president again in 2024, despite the fact that most Democrats don’t want him to.
• Biden is motivated to run again to turn back the threat to American democracy posed by Donald Trump and his heirs.
• Biden’s approval ratings are the best they’ve been since the end of 2021, but voters are still not buying it.
• Biden has the wisdom and ego to not worry too much about being wanted, and he has neutralized many of his potential challengers by drawing them into his administration.
• Kamala Harris is unlikely to draw a challenge from the sort of candidate who’d try to unify the party in the way Biden has, and she hasn’t had any signature moments or policies.
• Pete Buttigieg and Mitch Landrieu are potential claimants to the moderate mantle from outside the administration, but they face difficulty in running against Biden.
• Biden has managed to stare down sectors of the Democratic base on key issues without losing them, and the positive reception of his State of the Union only solidifies his position.
Published February 10, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read David A. Graham’s original post The Catch-24 of Replacing Joe Biden