Will he or won't he? Only the president knows.

As I write this, one week after his shockingly poor performance in his debate against former President Trump, it seems increasingly clear that President Biden will be forced to abandon his re-election efforts and allow the convention to pick a new nominee.

Biden would become the first president in 56 years to choose not to run for re-election.

The last president who did so – Democrat Lyndon Johnson – bowed out at the end of March 1968. It was three and a half years after he won a decisive landslide against Republican Barry Goldwater.

Biden would become the first president in 56 years to choose not to run for re-election. (Getty Images)

Early in his term, the high points of Johnson’s "Great Society" – the introduction of Medicare, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the launch of the "War on Poverty" – made people think he was going to be as important a president as Franklin D. Roosevelt – but opposition to his conduct of the Vietnam War and the 1967 riots across many large American cities had significantly weakened him politically.

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At the time of his announcement, two weeks after a disappointing showing in the New Hampshire primary, (anti-war Sen. Eugene McCarthy had won over 40% of the vote – and held Johnson to just under 50%) – and shortly after Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (brother of the late president) had entered the race, polls still suggested that Johnson had a........

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