Why Biden desperately needs Trump to be the Republican candidate

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From today’s WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bid...nion_lead_pos2

President Biden’s re-election announcement video on Tuesday was unusual, if not surprising. The early scenes are less about Mr. Biden’s record, and the sunny uplands of second-term hope, than they are about Donald Trump: images of the Jan. 6 riot, Trump signs, and a reference to “MAGA extremists.”
Mr. Biden won in 2020 by campaigning largely as the anti-Trump—a reassuring old hand you wouldn’t have to think about every day—and he figures he can do it again. The campaign strategy of putting Mr. Trump front and center worked to minimize Democratic losses in 2022. And the party is rolling it out again as Democratic prosecutors line up to keep Mr. Trump center stage with real and potential criminal indictments designed to stretch from here to Election Day.
It might work if Republican voters decide to let Democrats and the press choose their presidential nominee. But it’s also risky for the country given Mr. Biden’s 80 years, his decline in physical and mental acuity, and the known unknowns that might transpire in the next 19 months. We wrote Saturday about the selfishness of running again, given his decline, on a promise he knows he can’t keep to serve until he is 86 years old.
There is also his record in office: unprecedented federal spending that contributed to the worst inflation in 40 years, declining real incomes, worsening culture wars, and growing disorder and declining U.S. influence in the world. His approval rating is down where Mr. Trump’s was at this point in his Presidency.
A political poser is why no one serious in the Democratic Party is stepping up to challenge Mr. Biden given his age and record. One likely reason is that Democrats, especially on the left, are happy flying under the cover of Joe from Scranton with a history of political moderation before he became President. They’ve arguably achieved more of their progressive policy goals under Mr. Biden than they did in two terms with Barack Obama.
Another reason is the fear, bordering on panic, that they might be stuck with the demonstrably poor political talent of Vice President Kamala Harris as their nominee if Mr. Biden bows out. It’s a rational worry, yet Democrats also aren’t being honest about the likelihood that she could become President if Mr. Biden wins a second term.
The possibility that Mr. Biden’s decline could accelerate is real, as is the chance that he wouldn’t serve out his second term. Democrats will deny it, but a vote for Mr. Biden in 2024 is in a practical sense a vote for Ms. Harris as President as well. Resigning the office in his second term may even be part of Mr. Biden’s private calculation. That way Ms. Harris would become America’s first female President and could run in 2028 as an incumbent.
All of this explains why Mr. Biden is counting on Republicans to nominate Mr. Trump. The former President will be 78 years old in 2024, which would remove any age and generational advantage for the GOP. He might be able to defeat Mr. Biden if there’s a deep recession, a widening global conflict that involves the U.S., or a marked decline in Mr. Biden that even the White House and media can’t cover up.
But no one motivates Democrats to vote more than Mr. Trump, who also divides Republicans and has lost support among independents and suburban voters since his 2016 victory. Since that lone triumph, he has been an electoral loser for Republicans.
That’s why Mr. Biden is aching for GOP voters to take the Democratic and media bait and nominate the opponent he covets.