Continuing my tradition of doing a presidential postmortem for the outgoing commander-in-chief (see Bush and Obama and Trump), here are my brief and bumpy thoughts on the brief and bumpy Biden era:

• In 2020 he was the only candidate who could beat Trump. Not Bernie, not Elizabeth Warren. So the fact that he won both the primary and general election was good for America.
• He should not have attempted to run for reelection. We’ll never know whether anyone besides him or Harris could have beaten Trump in 2024 amidst the worldwide anti-incumbent wave, but it would have been nice to have a legit primary to find out. Ironically he did become the “bridge” leader he was considered to be, except instead of bridging towards the next generation of liberal leadership, he was just a rather rickety interlude between two sides of Trumpland.
• On the personal front, the last four years have been thoroughly domestic affairs for us—trying for and having a second kid being the main focus throughout. Related to that was my choice after the 2020 election to step back from posting about politics here (as the politics tag shows), since I went into overdrive during the Trump years. I could go down the line rating Biden’s policies and accomplishments since then (👍🏻 to supporting Ukraine, exiting Afghanistan, and signing the Electoral Count Act), but that’s moot at this point.
• Enjoy your retirement, I guess (and your Trans Am).