Most 81-year-olds have already stopped working to spend their retirements with loved ones.
Few are making plans to enter the world’s biggest popularity contest and commit to a grueling job until 2029.
Not so for Joe Biden, the Democratic president who pepped himself up to deliver an energetic State of the Union speech last week as he seeks another four-year stint in the West Wing.
This leaves many voters and analysts wondering why.
With this in mind, we commissioned a DailyMail.com/TIPP Poll on what voters say motivates the president.
TIPP pollster Raghavan Mayur says respondents were ‘all over the map’
Most 81-year-olds aren’t looking for another grueling five years in the office, but not Joe Biden
Raghavan Mayur, the lead pollster, said our 1,419 participants were split.
‘Respondents were all over the map when we asked why the 81-year-old president was running for a second term.’ said Mayur.
‘Most often, they said Biden wants to stop Trump getting back into the Oval Office.
‘But large numbers also said he’s in it for power, principal, or just to save the skin of his errant son, Hunter.’
Respondents could select three motivations.
By far the most popular was that Biden wants to stop his predecessor Donald Trump from winning another term in the White House.
Fully half of respondents said the president wanted to ‘stop Trump.’
That’s not surprising, as it echoes what Biden himself says about his reason for running.
The way the president tells it, Trump is a ‘threat to democracy’ who uses lies and violence to stay in power — much like he did in the assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Fully 11 percent of respondents said First Lady Jill Biden is driving her husband on to a second term
Another one-in-ten say the president is running again so he can look out for his troubled son, Hunter
Next up, 28 percent of respondents said Biden wanted to ‘continue serving the country.’
Another quarter said he wanted to complete the policies he launched in his first term.
Biden’s re-election manifesto covers everything from abortion access to education.
But his central plan involves reindustrialize swathes of the US with climate-friendly infrastructure projects.
Not everyone sees noble motives, however.
A similar number of respondents — 24 percent — said Biden likes the feeling of power from sitting behind the Resolute Desk.
Another fifth said Biden was motivated by ambition and building his legacy.
That makes sense for a man who started out in politics in 1970 — a full half-century before he landed the top job.
Some 16 percent of voters said Biden was succumbing to pressure from his Democratic Party, where some, but not all, members say he’s the strongest candidate to take on Trump.
Others said Biden was motivated by his personal ties, including the 11 percent who thought wife Jill Biden was nudging him toward another term.
Biden’s biggest motivator, however, is keeping his predecessor Donald Trump out of the Oval Office, our survey shows
Republicans and Democrats disagree over the president’s motivations, according to the survey by TIPP, which bills itself as the ‘most accurate pollster for the past five presidential elections’
One-in-ten, however, said he wanted to keep the top job as he was worried about his son, Hunter, who is being probed by Republicans over a slew of damaging drug, gun, tax, and business dealings.
Finally, 7 percent said Biden is ‘making way for someone else,’ — which hints at the long-shot theory that Biden will withdraw his candidacy at or shortly before the Democratic National Convention in August.
That would make it easier for another candidate to clinch the nomination without fighting their way through the primaries.
The leading outside candidate is former First Lady Michelle Obama, according to Bet365, even though she says she will not run.
Republican and Democratic voters broadly agreed on Biden’s motivations, though members of the president’s own party were more generous towards him.
Nearly half of Democrats said Biden was running to ‘serve his country’ and finish up his policy agenda.
Republicans, however, were more likely to say Biden was being driven by his wife or to protect his son, Hunter.
The nationwide survey was carried out earlier this month, and has a +/-2.7 percentage point error margin.
