The Job That Awaits President Biden
The challenges facing the next commander in chief are daunting — but the former vice president might just have the skills required.
He did it.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Almost 50 years to the day since he first entered politics, Joe Biden — erstwhile vice president, decades-long veteran of the Senate, national avatar of avuncularity — has been chosen as the next president of the United States. Wish him luck. He’ll need it.
His first challenge will be to steer the country through the hazards of the coming weeks. The full and final election numbers will take time to wrap up, and assorted legal gambits will need to be resolved. These almost certainly won’t change the result, but they risk fueling anger and instability. Until the matter is settled and Trump quits the stage — doubtless insisting, as he goes, that he was robbed — Biden will need to be a patient and steadying influence.