Biden's quest to be consequential could mean stepping away

Exit chorus grows louder even as he says he is the one who can beat Trump

- Bhagyashree Garekar

During a life filled with more than his fair share of personal tragedy, trauma and crisis, Mr Joe Biden has fought almost impossible odds to become US president.

So much so that in 51 years of public life, he has come to be associated with grief and grit.

But now, at 81 and on the eve of his last political battle, is it time for him to let go, to give up the fight and to go gently into the night?

So far, he has been unyielding in his resolve to fight.

In an interview a day after his disastrous performance in a presidential debate with Republican rival Donald Trump, Mr Biden tried to tamp down calls for him to exit the 2024 presidential race.

"If the Lord Almighty came down and said, 'Joe, get out of the race', I'd get out," he told ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos on June 28.

Even after a bout of Covid-19 his third laid him low, Mr Biden gave no indication that he had changed his mind.

"I look forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week," he said on July 20, even as opinion polls show him trailing Trump. He is expected to return to the capital in the coming week, after convalescing for five days in his Delaware home, while a rising chorus of Democrats asks him to pass the torch.

If he accedes to the wishes of his party men, he will become a one-term president, alongside Mr George H.W. Bush (1989 to 1993) and Mr Jimmy Carter (1977 to 1981). Americans regard two-term presidents as more consequential.

Mr Biden has tried all his life to be consequential. The road to the White House for the boy who grew up poor and was bullied for his stutter has been long.

His political career began at 29, in a Delaware hospital ward where his two sons were fighting for their lives after a car crash that killed their mother and 13-month-old sister. He took the oath as a senator by their bedside in 1973.