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They were just<\/strong> two short sentences, spoken 72 minutes into a 73-minute speech. But those lines may turn out to be, particularly in 2024, the most significant things President Joe Biden said during his second State of the Union address: \u201cI\u2019m not new to this place. I stand here tonight having served as long as about any one of you have ever served here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Those words got the attention of Mike Donilon, sitting in the Capitol audience. Donilon, the administration\u2019s top strategist, has been working closely with Biden for more than 40 years. He knows the way Biden thinks better than just about anyone other than the first lady, Dr. Jill Biden; he had written parts of Biden\u2019s State of the Union speech but not those lines. \u201cHe made it up right there,\u201d Donilon tells me later. One key to Biden\u2019s success as president has been playing against the stereotype that he\u2019s a gaffe-prone logorrheic. So the president going off-script was notable\u2014especially on this subject, even when raised cleverly and obliquely. \u201cHe\u2019s not,\u201d Donilon says, with careful understatement, \u201cthe most inclined to kind of go to talking about his age.\u201d<\/p>\n When Joe Biden<\/strong> was a child, there were only 48 states. He joined the Senate in 1973; 7 of his 99 colleagues from that year are still alive. At 80, he is older than roughly 96 percent of his fellow Americans. He has kept going through major political defeats, life-threatening health crises, and searing personal tragedies. Biden\u2019s durability has become a defining trait, inseparable from what one ally calls his \u201cmagic power\u201d\u2014his ability to exceed expectations. Just three years ago he was written off, after dismal showings in 2020\u2019s early primaries, as a viable contender for the Democratic nomination. Then, after Biden defeated incumbent president Donald Trump, conventional wisdom predicted a polarized Congress would laugh off his talk of bipartisan legislation. Just one year ago Biden\u2019s first term was being described as dead in the water, and longtime allies like David Axelrod were voicing doubts about a second term.<\/p>\n Instead, Biden\u2019s presidency has now seen the passage of bills worth trillions of dollars to do everything from stemming the pandemic to rebuilding the nation\u2019s infrastructure. Biden has led an international effort to stave off Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. And he has ostensibly cleared the Democratic primary field. \u201cHe has been underestimated his entire political career\u2014and I think he would say his entire life, going back to his childhood,\u201d says Kate Bedingfield, a longtime senior adviser who recently left the White House. \u201cBut he has an incredibly determined and steady mentality that is about putting one foot in front of the other.\u201d<\/p>\n There will be plenty of surprises between now and November 2024. Yet as Biden runs for a second term, one issue is sure to present a steep hurdle. \u201cYou hear it in focus groups, you hear it in qualitative research all the time,\u201d Democratic strategist Cornell Belcher says. \u201cIt is a question of whether or not, because of his age, he\u2019s up to the job.\u201d Even Biden\u2019s staunchest allies know the subject looms large. \u201cJoe Biden I\u2019m sure has lost a step,\u201d says James Clyburn, the 82-year-old Democratic congressman who resuscitated Biden\u2019s 2020 campaign with an endorsement in the South Carolina primary. \u201cIt\u2019s a legitimate concern. I don\u2019t hit my 5-iron as far as I used to\u2014but I can still play 36 holes of golf a day. You learn how to make certain adjustments. I think Joe Biden knows how to operate within himself. And I would much rather have an 82-year-old Joe Biden as president than a 42-year-old Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Biden made his reelection bid official in late April. If the timing of the announcement\u2014four years to the day he announced his run in 2019\u2014didn\u2019t make it clear that Biden wants 2024 to be a rerun, the content did, leaning on images of January 6 and Donald Trump. Biden\u2019s campaign will talk a great deal about his first term, but his team knows it needs to again stoke fear of MAGA.\u00a0<\/p>\n This time though, Biden\u2019s advanced age suffuses everything about his presidency, from the invaluable experience he brings to the job to the anxiety that he might not live to finish a second term. The best practical political argument for another Biden run, in addition to his first-term record, is that the Democrats don\u2019t have any other obviously stronger candidate. But there\u2019s a personal element at work too. The president is a father who has suffered the early deaths of two of his children, including his eldest son and presumed political heir, Beau. Those losses fuel Biden\u2019s empathy, and they are part of what compels him to keep going as long and as far as his health allows. In 2024, in his 13th and final campaign, Biden will again try to defy expectations. Yet he won\u2019t simply be running against the Republican nominee. He\u2019ll be running to make up for lost time.<\/p>\n The mood in<\/strong> the White House was grim. After months of tense negotiations with pivotal Democratic senator Joe Manchin over a $1.75 trillion social spending package, a deal had seemed within reach. Then, suddenly, it was falling apart. \u201cSenator Manchin gave an interview where it appeared he was saying he was walking away from it, an interview in West Virginia. And the feeling in the building was, \u2018Well, this is over,\u2019\u2009\u201d says Anita Dunn, whom Biden installed to revive his foundering 2020 primary campaign and who is now a senior White House adviser. \u201cThe president was overseas. We talked to him and he said, \u2018No, no, no, don\u2019t put out a statement. Don\u2019t assume that this is where it ends. We\u2019ve got to give him some more space.\u2019 And it came back together. He has a very good sense of how you give people the space they need to get to the result you want.\u201d<\/p>\n There is little Biden has not seen during 53 years of political life. That experience, deep and broad, was crucial to his two greatest triumphs so far as president. The tortuous dance with Manchin to agree on what ultimately became known as the Inflation Reduction Act turned, in part, on Biden\u2019s ability to learn from his past. He always looks for the good in people; when President Barack Obama sent Biden to Capitol Hill to negotiate, a congressional insider recalls, the then VP\u2019s penchant for taking Mitch McConnell at his word led to trouble. Last year, after Biden\u2019s very public failure to persuade Manchin, he backed off and let New York senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, handle the direct behind-the-scenes conversations that yielded an unexpected bargain in July 2022. \u201cWe were a team. We talked several times each week,\u201d Schumer says of his role with the president on the bill. \u201cHe let me work the Senate. He knew I had a very good relationship with Manchin. There was a period where Manchin wouldn\u2019t talk to anyone but me. He and Manchin had their ups and downs, but now they\u2019re getting along very well.\u201d<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s experience played an equally large part in his other signature achievement, repairing the damage done to international alliances during Trump\u2019s term. Biden could not predict where or when the renewed bonds might pay off. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the foundation of what became an indispensable coalition was already in place. \u201cJoe Biden has sayings that he repeats over and over,\u201d says Tom Carper, a Democratic senator from Delaware who has been his close friend for decades. \u201cOne of my favorites is, \u2018All politics is personal.\u2019 He believes that to his core. That\u2019s why he\u2019s spent so much time with Putin and Xi, with people like Jim Eastland, Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond. People say, \u2018How could Joe Biden possibly work with these people?\u2019 It\u2019s because he believes all politics is personal, all diplomacy is personal. Same thing with Joe Manchin. Always treat him with respect. Try to understand his point of view. Try to get to yes.\u201d<\/p>\n