'Second term syndrome' hits Joe Biden and Donald Trump for 2024 run to White House

WASHINGTON: The 'second term syndrome' seems to have sunk into the minds of both the current US President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, anxious to occupy the White House again from where power flows, global attention follows and decisions affecting the world are made.

Both Biden (80) and Trump (76) are aging politicians who will be 82 and 78 when they run for the White House in 2024 and generally not favoured by either the Democratic or Republican voters, who both want a younger face like Ron DeSantis, the Republican Florida Governor who won a spectacular race, and Democrats — California Governor Gavin Newsom and Vice-President Kamala Harris, all in their 40s and 50s.

Biden has announced his intent to run but he has not made a formal decision or announcement to oppose Trump, though majority opinion in the Democratic party is that if either Trump or DeSantis were to win the primaries, Biden is most favoured to beat them both by a larger margin in case of the former and probably by a smaller margin the latter.

Even as the Democratic National Congress awaits a formal announcement from Biden, a flurry of candidates are already lobbying with their donors and preparing for Plan B, should Biden choose not to contest on health grounds.

Though Biden has been successful in stemming the tide of the Republican Wave against his inept handling of the inflation issue, voters had abortion rights and jobs and election deniers as a threat to democracy uppermost in their minds while voting.

While 61 per cent of the Republicans want Trump to run, there is a doubt if he will even make it to the primaries because billionaires and donors and media barons see a great future for the GOP in DeSantis rather than Trump. In fact, billionaire media baron Rupert Murdoch lampooned Trump in his networks from Fox News to the New York Post to Wall Street Journal running edits against him as a liability for the party with his legal baggage. Post-November midterm polls show a seven per cent rise in popularity for DeSantis against Trump.

Trump has to contend with the January 6 panel hearings of his alleged involvement in the Capitol Hill's insurrection, face the tax fraud evasion case with the New York Attorney General Letitia James (Democrat) suing him for $250 million in punitive damages for tax fraud, obtaining loans from banks on fraudulent claims by inflating its property values, and the Department of Justice chasing him for the 11,000 top secret documents he spirited away to his Florida home instead of handing them over to the National Archives. This is not going to be easy for him, media reports say.

The BBC of the UK says Biden is the oldest President in US history and his approval ratings have stalled in the low 40s. Is President Joe Biden ripe for a primary challenge in 2024, the network asked?

With both of them being too old and voters wanting a young energetic President, there is a chance for a lot of young liberals to make it to the primaries. Starting with Vice- President Harris.

Perhaps nobody would benefit more from an aging President stepping aside than his Deputy Kamala Harris, says BBC, adding a former prosecutor who went on to serve as California's Attorney General and as its junior US Senator, the 58-year-old broke glass ceilings in 2020 as the first female, black and Asian-American Vice-President in the US history.

Last year, she briefly served as acting President in the 85 minutes it took Biden to undergo a colonoscopy. Problem here is that Harris is even less popular than the President and some voters have even questioned her competence.

Since assuming office, she has been given some of the administration's toughest portfolios — influx of immigrants at the southern US border. Conservative critics have accused her of awkward public appearances. High staff turnover and reports of low morale in the Vice-President's office have only made matters worse, the network claimed. But her supporters have claimed she has been a victim of misogyny and sexist slander. (IANS)

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