Joe Biden will spend New Year’s vacation along with his household in US Virgin Islands.

Washington:

President Joe Biden was to depart Tuesday for the US Virgin Islands, exchanging a lethal snowstorm for a Caribbean trip — and an anticipated New Year’s decision to hunt re-election in 2024.

He took flack from early morning Fox News hosts for being “ready to go have a good time” whereas Americans confront the blizzard.

However, Biden heads to the island of St Croix with a profitable 2022 behind him and momentum constructing for him to declare, on the unprecedented age of 80, that he desires one other 4 years within the White House.

If nothing else, the week’s vacation within the solar will likely be a welcome break for a president whose first two years in workplace featured an unimaginable collection of crises — most of them inherited when he took over on the already document age of 78.

The first half of his time period noticed the height and ebb of the Covid pandemic, a humiliating exit from the two-decades-old Afghanistan struggle, 40-year-high inflation, and the persevering with fallout from his Republican predecessor Donald Trump’s try to upend US democracy.

The Democrat’s deliberate New Year’s getaway in Puerto Rico final December was canceled on the final minute due to the Covid Omicron surge.

Today, although, Biden is prepared for the seaside.

At dwelling, his celebration scored a string of 2022 legislative victories, rounded off with December’s invoice defending same-sex marriage. Once hovering gasoline costs — probably the most politically damaging line merchandise in any inflation spreadsheet — are virtually again to regular.

Abroad, Biden is on a powerful roll, main a Western coalition in assist for Ukraine’s battle in opposition to Russia, whereas ramping up an aggressive renewal of US dedication to Asian allies going through China.

Meanwhile, congressional Republicans are in disarray as they put together to take over the House of Representatives in January, and Trump, nonetheless the celebration’s dominant chief, faces a number of authorized threats.

No surprise Biden oozed vacation cheer in an op-ed printed by Yahoo News simply earlier than Christmas.

“As we look back on 2022 — and look forward to what lies ahead — I have never been more confident about what the American people and the American economy can achieve,” he wrote.

– The age query –

White House incumbents almost at all times run once more — and customarily win.

Just three presidents who served full first phrases determined to stop with out taking a second shot. Trump is on the quick listing of presidents whose re-election bids failed.

However, precedent goes out the window on the subject of Biden’s age.

He can be 82 at his second inauguration and 86 by the point he left workplace — virtually a decade older than the earlier record-holder for previous age within the White House, Ronald Reagan, who completed his second time period at 77.

Whether age issues is a matter of debate, typically brutal.

Republicans attempt to painting Biden as senile. They level to his periodic verbal stumbles, his shuffling gait, and moments when he offers the looks of being confused or forgetful.

Backers say that Biden, whose gaffes and stuttering had been a characteristic all through his profession, exhibits each day that he’s in charge of the advanced job and that lots of his qualities come to the fore when he’s off-camera at high-stakes White House conferences.

Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s doctor, concluded in his annual report a yr in the past that other than comparatively minor indicators of previous age, the president was in wonderful well being and “fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.”

A brand new bodily is predicted to be accomplished shortly and O’Connor’s contemporary analysis will likely be intensely scrutinized.

As for Biden, he desires Americans to evaluate him on his outcomes, successfully saying age is only a quantity. “Watch me,” he likes to say.

A call to run will set in movement an all-consuming battle, doubtlessly ending in a rematch in opposition to Trump, who has already declared his personal marketing campaign. Should Biden step apart, Vice President Kamala Harris can be the plain alternative on the ticket, however she might face challengers, doubtlessly sparking inner Democratic turmoil.

Whatever will get determined within the Caribbean will initially stay a carefully held secret. However, Chief of Staff Ron Klain says that the announcement is simply a matter of time.

“The president will make that decision, I expect, shortly after the holidays,” Klain mentioned this month. “I expect the decision will be to do it.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)