Does Joe Biden enjoy being president?
I think it's important to know.
Though President Joe Biden has spent a lifetime chasing the presidency, now that he’s achieved his goal it’s unclear if he actually enjoys the job. As Biden is now campaigning for a second term and losing to ex-President Donald Trump in many polls, it would be useful to know if he’s benefiting from any kind of intrinsic motivation. Some evidence suggests that the presidency may not be his dream job after all.
For example, former CBS White House Correspondent Mark Knoller noted a few days ago that, by this point in their respective presidencies, Biden has spent more than twice as many days in Delaware as Trump did at Mar-a-Lago. Given Trump wasn’t the biggest fan of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, this is remarkable.
Biden appears to be so disenchanted by the White House that he even traveled to Delaware — and then quickly returned as the missiles were about to start flying — when an Iranian attack on Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, was imminent.
Additional evidence that Biden may be ill-at-ease with the presidency concerns his interactions with the Fourth Estate. Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple recently reported that Biden has done fewer press conferences and formal interviews than his predecessors. Compared to both Obama and Trump, Biden rarely makes time to speak with the press and respond to challenging questions. (Instead, he prefers social media influencers.)
Generally speaking, individuals who enjoy their work — or, at a bare minimum, find it stimulating — are eager to engage in meaty conversations about their trials and tribulations on the job. Why isn’t Biden? And, of course, it goes without saying that frequently talking to the press is an essential task for any democratic leader, as the New York Times recently noted in a statement expressing concern about Biden’s reticence.
For anyone who understands the role of the free press in a democracy, it should be troubling that President Biden has so actively and effectively avoided questions from independent journalists during his term. The president occupies the most important office in our nation, and the press plays a vital role in providing insights into his thinking and worldview, allowing the public to assess his record and hold him to account.
Perhaps most revealing, though, is that Biden doesn’t even seem to want to “do the work” — the term DC politicos deploy as a synonym for seriousness — on the campaign trail. Despite the pandemic being over, according to NBC reporting Biden is going to campaign like it’s still raging. Remarks will be short and large rallies, like those that inspired voters during the Obama era, non-existent.
The timing for scaling down the president’s remarks tracks with how his campaign operated four years ago, though Biden campaign events in 2020 were sparse due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Biden’s remarks shrank to an average of about 15 minutes as he gained momentum toward a matchup with Trump in 2020. At one of his larger events before Covid lockdowns, with thousands of people gathered under St. Louis’ Gateway Arch, Biden spoke for just seven minutes.
Biden genuinely seems to believe that, despite his 81 years and unpopularity, he is the best possible Democrat to beat Trump and save U.S. democracy from MAGA’s toxic right-wing populism. The problem, though, is that significant data suggests he’s on track to lose.
I believe it’s important to understand whether or not Biden actually enjoys being president, because if he doesn’t — and quite a bit of evidence suggests as much — it may be easier than some think to push him to step aside for a Democrat with a better chance of winning an Electoral College victory. In 2019, the New York Times reported that Obama privately told Biden “you don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t” in an attempt to dissuade him from seeking the nomination. If the presidency really has been less appealing than anticipated, one wonders if Obama repeating those words now might resonate more deeply with Biden — and, perhaps, spare both his legacy and our democracy.