Doing much better than expected that year helped persuade Joe Biden to stick around way too long. If he had dropped out a few months later, the Democrats could have held a primary. It would have been a bitter fight, but it would have given the Democrats a chance to nominate someone not so tied to an unpopular administration. That someone would have been able to create more credible distance on issues such as immigration and inflation, too. I’m not sure that would have been enough to overcome the unpopularity of the status quo. But Biden’s dropping out in late 2022 or early 2023 is one of a handful of Democratic decisions that might have made a difference.