• “Biden remains the top contender among Democrats, however, and Trump’s lead over the other GOP contenders widened following his federal indictment earlier this month.”

    Given that one is the clear favorite among Democrats, and the other is the favorite among Republicans, it’d be perverse if we didn’t get a rematch between them, unless that changes between now and the election.

    This is how it is supposed to work in a two-party system. The favorites of each party get to compete. If there were somebody else who was the favorite of their party, they’d get to compete.

    If it were a different system (e.g. a parliamentary system), then the rules would be different. Although tbh when I look across the pond to the UK, I can’t say they consistently do a better job picking leaders than we do.

    • As a Briton the idea of any of the last three PMs in a presidential system is really scary in my opinion. It’s easier to depose a leader that’s failing badly in the UK which is a good thing, I think the problem is the fact too much of our actual machinery of government is based on centuries-old gentleman’s agreements which is fine up until you get a complete stranger to honour like Boris Johnson who will abuse our fairly fluid constitutional arrangements to cling onto power like a tick.

      In theory the monarch is supposed to be the last line of defence against a genuinely scary and out of control government that Parliament can’t reign in but we saw how well that worked over the last three years.