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Were back where we started.

I heard CNNs Dana Bash say that last Sunday morning, while I was half-listening to the talk shows. I knew instantly what she meant.

A rematch of Joe Biden and Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race now seems virtually inevitable. And it doesnt just feel familiar. It feels like the same exact race we saw last time the same old men, saying the same old things they always say, except now theyre even older and (in one or both cases, maybe) less mentally acute.

It seems boring, disappointing or exasperating to lots of people, and you might be one of them. I get that. But I also think its easy to overlook the ways in which Biden-Trump 2.0 would be dramatically different from the first time around and why that should matter in November, when Americans will have to decide on a president for the next four years.

The most obvious difference is the circumstances of the election: whats happening in the nation and the world, and what challenges that means for whoever will serve in the White House.