It's insane to me that neither side can come up with a viable candidate that is not an (or nearly an) octogenarian. Do talented individuals just not want the job?
Correct. It's a job where you get very little done, you're constantly cutting ribbons and going to boring galas to fundraise, your life is put under a microscope, and the other side will investigate you and your family and maybe even try to throw you in jail.
Hard pass. No sane person wants the job.
One almost needs to destroy their life to get the job, and even then the chances seem to be so low that you'd more likely end up with a destroyed life and not a political office.
Obama was 47 when first elected in 2008.
Trump gets over a third of the GOP vote by just lying and so opposition to him as hard as you can't call him out on his lies which makes defeating him impossible, you can't beat the make believe land where everything is possible.
Biden will likely be the nominee as typically the incumbent gets first dibs per tradition.
Technically he needs to win the primary but at minimum the average person needs to be worse off in 2024 than they were in 2020.
Tha might be the case due to inflation and GOP court decisions. But then that leaves the bigger hurdle, who is best to beat Trump the candidate who already did or someone else.
It doesn't matter what the real answer is it matters what people feel.