Power and prestige are drugs. Old people just can't let go.

They feel death all around them, I expect. They find it so hard to admit they aren't essential. Ruth Bader Ginsburg waited too long and was rewarded with the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Feinstein!? McConnell's freezes. Grassley running for something like his fifth term? Props to Mitt Romney for leaving when he did.

Biden should have taken Cincinnatus as a model: he had an unexpected opportunity to do something really positive by sparing us a second Trump term -- and succeeded. I think history is going to be kind to him -- a guy who never came close otherwise to a nomination, despite repeated efforts. Then a door surprisingly opened. But he and too many Democrats misread the moment -- remember the absurd FDR aspirations? And Democratic fixation on identity politics -- not to mention the extraordinary and understandable popular outrage at George Floyd's killing -- led to nominating the hapless Harris, who, like her boss, was an even worse presidential candidate.