Will Biden's presidency be one-and-done?

Moving quickly and thinking expansively suits Biden’s needs under any scenario. If he goes home after one term, he’ll have created a legacy for himself and an enviable record for his successor to trumpet. One House Democrat told me that he believes Biden is “going for broke because he’s not running again.” Should Biden seek a second term, he’ll be able to protect programs that are going to need plenty of tending. Trump’s unstinting efforts to unravel Obama’s agenda shows what can happen when one party loses the White House to the other. What would be the expiration date on Biden’s planned Civilian Climate Corps (echoes of Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps) if the 47th presidency was in the caring hands of Ted Cruz? Having come so far, Biden may be in no hurry to vacate the office he’s coveted for so long. “He wants to govern for eight years,” Wade Randlett, a Democratic fundraiser and Biden supporter, told me. “He spent 50 years with his nose pressed against the glass and eight years really, really close to the presidency. Now he’s got it.” A president is also surrounded by a massive apparatus that can compensate for many of the infirmities that come with age. Assuming he needs it. “He’s a very young 78 years old. He really is,” Jon Cooper, a longtime Biden backer, told me. The job of Biden’s staff is to plan that he’s running again and leave him optimally positioned to win. That is how Biden’s political operation is proceeding. The Democratic National Committee, now headed by a Biden pick, the former South Carolina senate candidate Jaime Harrison, sent out a fundraising solicitation last week offering those who have raised $500,000 a “guaranteed 2024 Convention Package.”