Biden vs. Trump

The 60th U.S. presidential election is scheduled for November 5, 2024, which will elect the 47th owner of the White House. Or Joe Biden, the 46th president, will remain so, if he runs for a second time and wins the election.

Meanwhile, the nomination process for both parties is underway. The candidates are just announcing their plans to run. But it is already interesting to analyze the beginning of the election race 2024.

Perry Johnson, a businessman who ran for governor of Michigan in 2022, but was withdrawn from the primary vote because of accusations of forging signatures, is going to run for the Republican presidential nomination. It's a funny situation when, in a country that teaches the world about democracy, a man who forged signatures is going to be president.

From the Democrats, the nephew of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, the son of Senator Robert Kennedy, a fierce opponent of vaccination, aka environmental lawyer Robert Kennedy, Jr. is also running for president. "I'm thinking about it, and I have overcome the most serious obstacle: my wife has given the green light," he said. The Kennedy clan is loved in the United States, so he has a good chance, if not of winning the election race, then of garnering Democratic votes.

In addition, several other candidates have officially announced their participation in the U.S. presidential election, representing a wide political spectrum, as they say - for all tastes. They are three Republicans: 45th President Donald Trump, entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy, and former South Carolina Governor and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who proudly declared: "I'm Nikki Haley, and I'm running for president."

It is interesting that Ramaswamy is a businessman who was born in the U.S. to immigrant families from India. It looks like this right-wing Republican will try to gain the support of quite a few immigrant voters. He is a proponent of "family-patriotism-faith" and opposes leftist ideology. It's also curious when an Indian, a first-generation American who remembers how hard he had it in school because of his southern appearance and complicated last name, tries to run for election under completely right-wing slogans.

Marianne Williamson, a writer, also announced her candidacy from the Democrats. This is the first official nomination from the Democratic Party for the upcoming election. "As of today, I am a candidate for president of the United States," she declared. She motivated her decision by the Democrats' move away from F. Roosevelt's party and the worsening economic injustice in America. By the way, Williamson was also planning to run in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, but withdrew her candidacy 10 months before the vote because of her low rating. It is easy to assume that in the upcoming elections the writer will get the least number of votes.

Certainly the most attention is attracted by the candidacy of 80-year-old Joe Biden. His advanced age does not embarrass Joe, he hints that he intends to run in the primaries - and the Democratic Party supports him in this endeavor. But Biden's mainstay is his wife, who hopes Joe will run. It is interesting that Biden, like John F. Kennedy's nephew, is getting "permission" to run from his wife. Clearly, all these permissions from wives and their blessings are designed to appeal to the sympathy of voting Americans for the institution of family values.

What better way to electoral campaign than a good old-fashioned demonstration of a strong family where the wife supports her husband in his political struggle?

By the way, if Biden runs for election and wins, he will be 82 years old at the time of his inauguration. Whether he will be able to lead the country at that age is a big question, if he is already falling off the ramp, looking for absent interlocutors and speaking incoherently.

The Washington Post names several other potential candidates: on the Republican side, they include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and on the Democratic side, Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigich, and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Special mention should be made of such a figure as Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who although has not yet officially announced his participation in the elections, but looks like he is also going to run and could be a serious competitor to John Biden. In the meantime, his supporters are getting more and more involved in his nomination efforts. And Trump, realizing that DeSantis could seriously compete with him, begins to bite him, calling him "Ron DeSanctus," and teasing him in every way possible.

Very interesting is the struggle that may unfold between them in the future.

According to Fox News, 43% of Republicans voting in the primaries are willing to name Donald Trump as their presidential candidate. Ron DeSantis has a 28% approval rating. Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence each have seven percent, despite the latter having already launched their campaigns.

If DeSantis does not run for reelection - and he has nowhere to hurry, at 44 his political life is, by and large, just beginning - the main struggle will unfold between the two heavyweights, Trump and Biden. You have to consider the Americans' love of having a two-term president. They think it's better to have a politician as president whose rule they can judge by his works than to vote for a cat in a bag. Meanwhile, voters, of course, are embarrassed by the quirks of the elderly Biden. According to the same Fox News poll, 84% of Democrats approve of the work of current head of state Joe Biden. But only 37% want him to run for a second term. In other words, they like him at the moment, but would like someone younger for the next presidential term.

In turn, pollsters from the Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll concluded that if the presidential election were held now, Trump would win it over Biden (46% vs. 41%).

And in the inner-party primaries, he would have won. His approval rating is 37%, DeSantis' is 19%, and Haley's is seven. In a Conservative Political Action Conference poll, former White House leader Trump won 62% of the vote, his closest rival, Ron Desantis, only 20%.

If the battle for the presidency heats up between Biden and Trump, it will be a contest between two pensioners: the first is 76 years old and the second is 80. By the way, a CNBC poll showed: 70% of Democratic Party supporters do not want him to run a second time because of his venerable age and generally two-thirds of Americans are against having two ageist politicians vying for the presidency in 2024. And Trump's re-election would make 66 percent of voters uncomfortable, while Biden's would make 67 percent uncomfortable. That is, both retirees are annoying.

It is clear why Biden has not yet declared his intention to run: if he decides not to run, then, because it is his last term, he automatically becomes a lame duck. And if he is nominated, but cannot run for president for health reasons - a heavy workload for an 80-year-old man - he will let his Democratic Party down.

Although the new U.S. election is still a year and a half away, we can already guess what will be most interesting: the battle between Trump and Desantis and the decision as to whether Biden will enter the race.