Feel for Joe Biden. If you too had spent half a century coveting a job, you might be reluctant to give it up. When the octogenarian turned in the most disastrous debate performance in modern times on June 27th, alarmed fellow Democrats began agitating for him to gracefully withdraw from his re-election campaign. The confused guy who appeared on stage seemed in no state to defeat Donald Trump in November, let alone govern the country into 2029.

But Mr Biden is nothing if not stubborn. His campaign staff spent the week following the debacle trying to contain the fallout, urging elected Democrats not to go public with their calls for the president to stand aside. The Biden campaign then mounted a counteroffensive against those critics. “I’m not going anywhere,” the candidate announced.