Three presidents in my lifetime were elected to one term but were not re-elected. I will leave out questions of voting fraud in 2020. My recollection is that both Carter and HW quickly became political nonentities. The Reagan administration did not fear a Carter comeback in 1984 and the same was true for Clinton and HW. Yet Trump is much discussed even though he’s much older than the other two former presidents. The Media, Democrats (yup, there’s not much difference) and NTers continue to be obsessed with him. Perhaps the reason is that Trump, pre-Covid, was a very successful president. The same could not be said for the other two. The Iran hostage crisis hurt Carter but his economic record was poor throughout his presidency. Bush alienated his base by breaking his “no new taxes” promise. The military victory in Kuwait faded rapidly when a recession hit.

The Biden presidency looks like it will be a catastrophic failure. His VP is likely to succeed him soon. Harris flamed out quickly as a candidate and has shown no particular political skills. The kudos she will get as the first female president will only carry her so far. We can’t know what physical condition Trump will be in three years from now, but he’s likely to be a kingmaker if he chooses not to run. That was not the case with Carter or HW. So Trump remains a major political force. It’s possible that three years from now even major non Bill Kristol NTers will agree that they miss him.

There’s a long list of anti-Trump stories which have fallen apart. Examples are the Russian collusion, Charlottesville, the Ukraine conversation, slandering wounded troops, etc. Now the “subverting Georgia’s election” fable has been retracted by the Washington Post. It’s almost as if they don’t care what’s the truth. A retraction two months later is close to worthless.