Since this is an opinion column, let me be clear about mine. There is no chance, zero, that Joe Biden will seek to become the nation’s first octogenarian presidential candidate. As Dana Carvey’s George H.W. Bush would put it: “Na ga da — not going to do it.”

“Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else,” Biden said just over a year ago. “There’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.” Many Biden supporters took that as tacit assurance there would be no second term.

Underscoring the single-term assumption was reporting like this from Ryan Lizza in Politico early in the campaign: “According to four people who regularly talk to Biden, all of whom asked for anonymity to discuss internal campaign matters, it is virtually inconceivable that he will run for reelection in 2024.”