Ramachandra Guha: It wasn’t just Biden. In every country, old men refuse to quit when they should

The United States is the country I know best apart from my own. I first visited it 38 years ago and have been back many times since. My last visit was in the spring of 2023, when Joe Biden had been president for a little more than two years. I spent some three weeks on that trip and from conversations with friends – and my own observations – it was clear that the president had done an excellent holding job, helping Americans put the vicious polarisation of the Trump years behind them. It was equally evident that, given his age and infirmities, Biden should not seek a second term and make this announcement in time to allow his party to choose the best candidate to replace him.

Alas, Biden did not heed the signs and actively sought a second term. After his disastrous performance in the debate with Donald Trump, there was increasing pressure on him to withdraw from Democratic donors, Congressmen and Senators, and the party rank-and-file. The polls showed him slipping further and further behind his rival. Nonetheless, for several weeks, Biden dug in his heels, until he was finally forced to quit.

The current American president’s desperation to cling on to...

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