Fifty years from now, maybe less, it will be a trivia night question few will be able to answer: who was the US President between Donald Trump’s two terms in the White House?
Political boffins will remember, albeit not fondly. Some people might vaguely recall it was some old white guy who was losing his marbles, but without remembering his name.
Most, however, won’t have a clue. Certainly not outside of America, where they at least teach their political history better than in places like Australia.
Try asking an Australian to name 10 prime ministers and see how you go!
The point is, Joe Biden’s political legacy is in tatters now, torn to shreds by Trump’s emphatic victory on Tuesday.
The value in Biden’s win against Trump back in 2020 was removing him from office and consigning Trump to the political dustbin.
That was certainly the belief amongst his supporters. After the January 6 riots at the Capitol many more Americans thought the same thing.
Yet here we are, nearly four years later and Trump has won a resounding victory against Biden’s VP Kamala Harris.
The value in Joe Biden’s win in 2020 (above, at his inauguration in 2021) was that he had consigned Donald Trump to the dustbin of history. Yet here we are
Trump won both the popular vote and the Electoral College. Republicans have won the Senate and counting continues to see if they have won the House of Representatives.
Whatever way you slice or dice it, Trump is the victor and the Democrats, as a party, are the vanquished.
Biden wears the loss more than anyway. More even than Harris, who despite being an underwhelming Vice President was thrust into the contest 100 days before the election, because an ageing Joe Biden wasn’t up to it.
The President should have announced months earlier, if not years, that he wouldn’t seek a second term.
It would have allowed Democrats to go through a full primary selection process to appoint a worthy successor. Someone they knew could beat Trump.
The fact that Biden held on too long, then gave in when it was too late to lock in a Democratic victory, is pretty much all anyone will remember about him now.
A political career that started in 1973 and included eight years as Vice President and four as President has been reduced to this.
It is worse than a Greek tragedy.
For Trump opponents Biden would have been better off to lose in 2020. Had that happened we would now be waving goodbye to the Trump era, rather than ushering in another four years.
Trump opponents will worry what he might do after suffering the defeat he did and being turfed out four years ago.
Where was Joe Biden’s wife, Jill, when the President needed her frank and fearless advice?
That wouldn’t be a concern had he won back then.
The whole point of Biden running for President, in the eyes of Democrats, was to end Trump’s political career.
But by letting hubris take over and insisting he wasn’t too old or too fragile to run again, nor suffering from cognitive decline, Biden has trashed his own long and till now distinguished legacy in American politics.
Where were his wife, his family, friends and close aides when he needed their frank and fearless advice to announce he wasn’t running again a year ago?
They let him down.
So here we are. Trump is back with a mandate he could have only dreamed of when he first became President.
What will he do with it? Tariffs and tougher border protection seem to be the two most likely policy scripts to get a run. American isolationism also seems likely.
We’ll find out soon enough what his cabinet is going to look like, and how in control he really is of the Republicans in the Congress.
It will also be interesting viewing to watch JD Vance develop as a political leader as VP. Whether he shines and becomes Trump’s natural successor, or falls out with the boss like his last VP Mike Pence ultimately did.
Meanwhile, Trump’s opponents have four more years to be outraged at his actions and antics.
Biden, for his part, will retire in ignominy. The forgotten President wedged between the Trump years, nothing more.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk