It doesn't matter whether it's Boris Johnson, Liz Truss or even Margaret Thatcher of sainted memory. Party chiefs put their heads together, have a quiet word. And the erstwhile leader, once lauded by all, is out. Done. Dumped. Deposed. Deposited on Downing Street's rubbish heap of history.
American presidential politics doesn't work that way. It is more respectful, less ruthless. A White House incumbent is hard to shift. Three failed impeachments in recent decades (with a fourth, Biden's, now in prospect) make the point. Yet a president can be ousted if judged unable or unfit to serve - or is shamed into resigning.
So how safe is Biden from a Tory-style stab in the back? Will pressure to stand down reach breaking point? He has vowed to seek a second term next year. But polls indicate two in three Democrats want someone, anyone else as their nominee. Biden's national approval rating is a low 40%. Most voters believe he is too old to run again.
The president's age - he will be 81 in 2024 - is hardly a new issue. But it was cruelly exposed at this month's press conference in Hanoi. Biden stumbled, forgot what he was saying, and was eventually led away by aides.
Now everyone is asking how this tottering figure will survive the campaign hurly-burly, let alone four more years in office. Biden supporters protest this is all desperately unfair. He is fit and spry, they insist. He has an impressive legislative record, has vanquished the pandemic, beaten inflation, stood up to Russia and China. Maybe. But many Americans see things differently, as Donald Trump demonstrated in 2016.
Denne historien er fra September 22, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra September 22, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Finn family murals
The optimism that runs through Finnish artist Tove Jansson's Moomin stories also appears in her public works, now on show in a Helsinki exhibition
I hoped Finland would be a progressive dream.I've had to think again Mike Watson
Oulu is five hours north from Helsinki by train and a good deal colder and darker each winter than the Finnish capital. From November to March its 220,000 residents are lucky to see daylight for a couple of hours a day and temperatures can reach the minus 30s. However, this is not the reason I sense a darkening of the Finnish dream that brought me here six years ago.
A surplus of billionaires is destabilising our democracies Zoe Williams
The concept of \"elite overproduction\" was developed by social scientist Peter Turchin around the turn of this century to describe something specific: too many rich people for not enough rich-person jobs.
'What will people think? I don't care any more'
At 90, Alan Bennett has written a sex-fuelled novella set in a home for the elderly. He talks about mourning Maggie Smith, turning down a knighthood and what he makes of the new UK prime minister
I see you
What happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads? A new clinical trial reveals some surprising results
Rumbled How Ali ran rings around apartheid, 50 years ago
Fifty years ago, in a corner of white South Africa, Muhammad Ali already seemed a miracle-maker.
Trudeau faces 'iceberg revolt'as calls grow for PM to quit
Justin Trudeau, who promised “sunny ways” as he won an election on a wave of public fatigue with an incumbent Conservative government, is now facing his darkest and most uncertain political moment as he attempts to defy the odds to win a rare fourth term.
Lost Maya city revealed through laser mapping
After swapping machetes and binoculars for computer screens and laser mapping, a team of researchers have discovered a lost Maya city containing temple pyramids, enclosed plazas and a reservoir which had been hidden for centuries by the Mexican jungle.
'A civil war' Gangs step up assault on capital
Armed fighters advance into neighbourhoods at the heart of Port-au-Prince as authorities try to restore order
Reality bites in the Himalayan 'kingdom of happiness'
High emigration and youth unemployment levels belie the mountain nation's global reputation for cheeriness
