What Biden can teach the king

But when Joe Biden sees Charles Philip Arthur George Windsor in London on Sunday ahead of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the two men might find they have a great deal in common, at least in this moment.

The two septuagenarians each see themselves as a bulwark against forces trying to overthrow everything they stand for. Biden says he ran for president because of the violence in Charlottesville and is laying the groundwork to run again in 2024 to save democracy from former president Donald Trump. Charles must fend off separatist movements in Scotland, Northern Ireland and across the commonwealth while his country’s government contends with the continuing challenges of Brexit, which was an ill-conceived economic divorce from Europe.

Both men know about waiting. Charles has been an understudy forever, the oldest person to ever ascend to the British throne in the millennium-long history of the royal family. He has been heir apparent since his mother became queen in 1952. Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history and came to the presidency on his third try overcoming staggering odds and the doubts of his own party.

Each grapples with unfavorable comparisons to his predecessor. Charles seems doomed never to be as popular as Elizabeth II, just as Biden chafes under the aura of awe that still surrounds former president Barack Obama (at least from Democrats). Both must now show uncharacteristic self-discipline to succeed as heads of state.

Both have known personal pain and heartache; both have complex relationships with their youngest son; both men had to look after young children who lost their mom in tragic car crashes.

Each earned a reputation as a gaffe machine. Biden ended his first bid for the presidency in 1987 after being caught plagiarizing from the speeches, and even the life story, of British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. In 2012, he warned a Black audience in the South that Mitt Romney would “put y’all back in chains.” In his prime, he was notorious for turning brief addresses into hour-long stemwinders. In his twilight years, he’s learned to curb this habit and stop himself.

Charles said in 2010 that he talked to his plants, and that they talked back. In 1992, while still married to Princess Diana, he compared himself to a tampon in a leaked phone call with Camilla Parker Bowles, who is now queen consort. Over the years, Charles routinely sent private letters to cabinet ministers — dubbed “black spider memos” because of his spooky handwriting — on topics ranging from the Iraq War to organic farming.

Both are green — or, at least, greenish. Charles has been sounding the alarm about the planet since his first major speech on pollution in 1970. While environmentalism has never been central to Biden’s brand, the issue actually helped catapult his early political career. As a county councilman in 1971, he successfully marshaled opposition to kill a planned refinery in Delaware and ran commercials about the environment when he first ran for Senate. In the mid-1980s, he was one of the first senators to introduce climate change legislation.

Biden and Charles are likely transitional figures. Biden described himself during the 2020 campaign as “a bridge” to the next generation of Democratic leaders. Pundits here in London speak about Charles as a short-timer in tones similar to those that people across the pond use when speculating over whether Biden will run again.

Coming from two countries which share a “special relationship,” the two men have little or none themselves. Biden most recently saw Charles at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last fall. Then the Prince of Wales, Charles said the warming planet poses “an even greater existential threat” than the coronavirus pandemic and required “a warlike footing.” Biden praised his advocacy: “We need you badly,” he told the prince. “I’m not just saying that.”

The biggest lesson the American can offer the Brit now? More forbearance. Biden was dismissed as a political force several times in his long career, including as recently as just a few months ago. The president is stepping more confidently now, a 79-year-old example of how to play the long game. That’s something a 73-year-old, just starting out as king, can believe in.