America needs fresh leaders - Biden and Trump should bow out

Joe Biden has many reasons to be grateful he is not a member of Britain's ruling Conservatives, but one in particular stands out. When a Tory prime minister is polling badly, looking jaded and in danger of becoming a liability or a joke, they don't mess about.

- Simon Tisdall

It doesn't matter whether it's Boris Johnson, Liz Truss or even Margaret Thatcher of sainted memory. Party chiefs put their heads together, have a quiet word. And the erstwhile leader, once lauded by all, is out. Done. Dumped. Deposed. Deposited on Downing Street's rubbish heap of history.

American presidential politics doesn't work that way. It is more respectful, less ruthless. A White House incumbent is hard to shift. Three failed impeachments in recent decades (with a fourth, Biden's, now in prospect) make the point. Yet a president can be ousted if judged unable or unfit to serve - or is shamed into resigning.

So how safe is Biden from a Tory-style stab in the back? Will pressure to stand down reach breaking point? He has vowed to seek a second term next year. But polls indicate two in three Democrats want someone, anyone else as their nominee. Biden's national approval rating is a low 40%. Most voters believe he is too old to run again.

The president's age - he will be 81 in 2024 - is hardly a new issue. But it was cruelly exposed at this month's press conference in Hanoi. Biden stumbled, forgot what he was saying, and was eventually led away by aides.

Now everyone is asking how this tottering figure will survive the campaign hurly-burly, let alone four more years in office. Biden supporters protest this is all desperately unfair. He is fit and spry, they insist. He has an impressive legislative record, has vanquished the pandemic, beaten inflation, stood up to Russia and China. Maybe. But many Americans see things differently, as Donald Trump demonstrated in 2016.