What does 36 years in the Senate say about a politician? It says he is a senator — not a president.
So the first reason Biden will not become president is that no one who served 36 years in the Senate has ever become president.
So the first reason Biden will not become president is that no one who served 36 years in the Senate has ever become president.
No one who served 30 years in the Senate has ever become president. No one who served 25 years in the Senate has ever become president. No one who served 20 years in the Senate has ever become president. No one who served 15 years in the Senate has ever become president.
OK, put aside the Senate, Biden's supporters would say. What about his 8 years as vice president? Certainly that could be the basis for a successful presidential run. But the second reason Biden will not become president is that the record of VP’s on that score is not encouraging
Only one president has gone from the vice presidency to private life and then to the presidency. Richard Nixon served as vice president in the 1950s, narrowly lost the 1960 presidential election, and then came back to win the presidency in 1968.
That is Biden's hope — that a vice president can leave office and then, after a period outside government, return to win the White House.
Finally, the third reason Biden will not be president is the "14-Year Rule." The idea of former George W. Bush speechwriter John McConnell, and popularized by writer Jonathan Rauch, it basically says that politicians have a strict sell-by date.
"No one gets elected president who needs longer than 14 years to get from his or her first gubernatorial or Senate victory to either the presidency or the vice presidency," Rauch wrote. That has been true for a century.
Biden didn't even get close. It took him 36 years to get from his first Senate victory to the vice presidency. If he wins the presidency now, it would be 47 years from that first Senate swearing-in until Inauguration Day.
