Biden still on the clock

President Joe Biden's historic decision to stand aside for Vice President Kamala Harris in the election has put him in an unusual position: a lame duck incumbent still in the summer of what he had hoped would be his first term.

When Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office tonight, he has said he will speak not just about his decision not to seek reelection, but also about what he intends to do with the roughly six months he has left in office.

A congressional recess and the Democratic National Convention largely will shut down the capital in August. But there's still work for Biden to do in the fall, even as his power ebbs.

The legislative chaos in the House of Representatives has shown little sign of abating, as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson's leadership team continues to pull appropriations bills off the floor. That means prospects for an unruly fight over federal spending are growing for September, when the House returns.

Asked if that would inevitably mean Congress will have to pass yet another temporary stopgap government funding bill, Johnson demurred, saying "nothing is inevitable in American politics."

Biden will have to decide how to weigh in on one more fight over federal spending with his leverage diminished.

With Harris focusing on the campaign against Donald Trump, Biden will also have to make his presence felt in international affairs. European allies watching a presidential contest between a relatively untested Democratic successor and a Republican ticket that has flirted with cutting off aid to Ukraine altogether will be looking for a signal — if Biden can convincingly send it.

And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress today is a reminder that there is still an ongoing, globally divisive war in Gaza, one Biden has repeatedly attempted to influence, usually at great political cost.

The hardest job on the planet still has a suite of headaches for Joe Biden, even if he is a short-timer now. — Ted Mann