Is it time for Biden to walk away?

Ted Williams’ last Fenway plate appearance was a home run at 43 after a season that saw him hit .316 with 29 home runs. Lionel Messi is sending Miami fans into the uncharted territory of pure joy only exquisite skills in The Beautiful Game can provide. But boxing is not like baseball or soccer.

Politics too is a contact sport and played no small role in Ali’s career when he was forced to sit out three valuable years awaiting the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of a lower court ruling on his conscientious objector status, refusing military induction on religious grounds. Asked if he would seek damages, the reigning, undefeated champion replied with uncharacteristic restraint: “No, they only did what they thought was right at the time. I did what I thought was right. That was all. I can’t condemn them for doing what they think was right.”

When the court rendered its decision in 1971 public opinion regarding the Vietnam war had shifted considerably, with 70 percent of the country asserting opposition as well as mistrust of Richard Nixon’s honesty about the conflict. Ali’s fortunes shifted significantly at that time as well, losing and regaining the title twice and in the brutal process that is boxing, becoming an unlikely, internationally revered icon.

One thing I love about Joe Biden is his resilience in the face of a barrage of hate-filled rhetoric from what Hillary Clinton identified as “a vast, right wing conspiracy,” exponentially worse and more widespread thanks to social media than it was when the First Lady was defending her husband as Kenneth Starr was ensuring Americans knew more about what went on under the Oval Office desk than on top of it.

But like Ali, Biden roared back triumphantly from four years in exile while the previous guy ran roughshod over America’s credibility, both home and abroad. Unfortunately, the current president shares another of the former champion’s traits. He takes a good punch. But as with Ali, punches thrown by mediocre, tomato-can fighters or mediocre political opponents collaborating with bottom-feeding media empires eventually land and begin to take a toll.

It was difficult to watch Ali’s last few fights as he took punishment, relying on a steel jaw, waiting for an opportunity that his diminished speed and power could no longer seize. So, too, it is painful to watch Biden struggle through the unscripted moments that easily become cannon fodder for those impugning his intelligence.

Therein lies the rub.

While the blows landed and wounds inflicted during a presidential campaign are metaphorical, politics can be every bit as cruel as boxing, especially when a clownishly unserious, lifelong grifter can realistically compete with a quite competent, lifelong public servant. Unlike Ali though, Biden’s skills remain largely intact. He’s never been an eloquent speaker, susceptible to verbal gaffes stemming in part from a childhood stuttering problem and retaining to this day a difficulty with word retrieval that provides too easy a target for relentless attacks.

A tally of Biden’s legislative accomplishments is beyond impressive but hasn’t translated to mass appeal in a country firmly divided by deep partisanship with superficial, yet highly effective, depictions of his stiff legged gait, struggles at the podium and reliance on down-home phrases as markers for cognitive decline. But like so much else, these simplistic assaults do not reflect reality.

His record since taking office tells a decidedly different story with passage of such legislation as the American Rescue Plan Act with its impact on child poverty rates; the bipartisan infrastructure bill focused on everything from water pipes, railroads and high-speed internet; and the Inflation Reduction Act and its substantial investment in clean energy. Throw in a new policy allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, bolstering U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, gun safety measures and the Respect for Marriage Act to guarantee that all states recognize same-sex marriage.

Despite what has been described as one of the most productive initial terms in the last 50 years, the president’s approval ratings remain low enough to worry Democrats, almost 70 percent of whom also believe that at 80, he’s too old to seek a second term. Republican voters appear to have no such apprehensions of their standard bearer, no spring chicken or picture of health himself: a chubby 77 with an exercise regime limited to steering a golf cart and doing curls with either a bucket of KFC or a Big Mac.

Although it’s hard to imagine Biden stepping away at this point, as an octogenarian, the challenges he faces will be daunting, the denunciations relentless, and the day-in, day-out rough and tumble, borderline insanity of a presidential run could easily stress a man half his age onto a psychiatric couch.

But he knows there’s more to do and he’s determined to get it done. Whether or not he needs to do it himself will be the big question these next months.

As the gamesmanship plays out with detractors snarling over the president’s inability to complete the task, he might take solace in something Ali said when Parkinson’s had him on the ropes, slowly robbing him of his irrepressible eloquence: “Don’t count the days, make the days count.”

Walt Amses lives in North Calais.