Biden’s next year promises to be brutal, so he should dispense with this historic announcement early in 2023 – that he will leave political life at the end of his term. Lawyers are clearly prepping for probes into Hunter’s business ventures, any that involved his father and/or uncle, and his brushes with the law. Hunter’s ugly personal life, the drugs and prostitutes, will be highlighted alongside any unethical or illegal conduct he is guilty of. It will be a hideous passage for the entire Biden family.

Announcing his retirement could blunt some of what Republicans have in store for the president. While they prepare to impeach him, Biden would not be clinging to power and political advantage like Trump did when he was accused of high crimes and misdemeanors, and Biden could automatically flatten several tents of the Republican circus because he would not be standing for office again.

So next winter, when the new Congress is sworn in, no matter its makeup or majority, Biden should tell the country he will not be running for reelection. At that time, after the beltway dust, conventional wisdom, and postmortems about the midterm elections have settled and hardened, Biden should give Americans his own assessment of what the elections showed about both the GOP and the Democratic Party. Liberated from the constraints of base management that a reelection campaign would require, Biden should guide his party in the direction he truly thinks is required to win a durable, governing majority.