Jules Witcover

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden entered the Oval Office in January committed to an ambitious agenda fashioned after FDR’s rescue of the country from the Great Depression. It is being seriously challenged now by a new strain of the coronavirus that threatens all Americans, obliging him to refocus on it while still taking a long-term look at where he wants to take the country during his presidency.

His original plan was to reinvigorate the domestic economy with a long list of new programs aimed to improve to the lot of the “forgotten” working class. Instead, he must now also address a new phase of the pandemic that requires even greater presidential attention in behalf of all Americans.

In a real sense, the challenge posed by the arrival of omicron variant again highlights a sharp contrast between Biden’s long experience in government and that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, who openly talks of seeking a return to the Oval Office in 2024.

Once again, voters seem likely to face a rerun then of the Biden-Trump battle at the ballot box, with the sharply contesting personal styles and campaign mannerisms and objectives on mutually combative display.

Trump can be depended on to assault the customarily easy-going and folksy Biden with a barrage of lies and disparagement, while the sitting president strives to project strengthen and steadiness while questioning Trump’s mental capacities and responsibility.

Biden may hope that he will be judged by the voters on the basis of his experience and the merits of his detailed plans in behalf of the American manual-labor class. But inevitably their votes for him are likely to be cast in a repeat Biden vs. Trump campaign on the fact that he is not Trump, who in turn will benefit from voters because of who he is and what they like in him.

This contemplated choice between two strikingly disparate candidates could well deprive Biden of many voters who ordinarily might be persuaded by the merits of such proposals as generous family support for the unemployed or underemployed, free preschool for all and expanded community college education.

These and other obvious social welfare notions advocated by Biden no doubt would also encourage strong push-back from the extensive Trump network. But a portion of such votes would be cast on the merits of the causes, rather than simple acceptance of Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Such is the political horizon into which the American electorate is floating, approaching the end of in the first year of the Biden presidency, and of the departure of the first Trump era. The future again will be in the hands of the voters, with more uncertainty about the outcome.

Jules Witcover’s latest book is “The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power,” published by Smithsonian Books. You can respond to this column at juleswitcovercomcast.net.