Biden confronts an ending with Carter’s funeral

Not a lot of men get to see what their own funerals are going to look like.

Not a lot of men get to see what their own funerals are going to look like. Even fewer get to speak at them. For all the valedictory moments that Joe Biden and his staff lined up for his quiet final weeks in the White House – ceremonies awarding medals to supportive celebrities and political friends, receptions and fleeting moments of reflection with the dwindling number of top aides left around – Thursday is unique. Biden will start the day at the National Cathedral, delivering a eulogy for the first presidential candidate he endorsed as a young senator. Standing there, he’ll see what fellow leaders do and say when they send off a president who left office under a cloud of disappointments and regrets. And even in the closing days, came another: Biden’s planned trip to see Pope Francis, the likeminded leader of the Catholic faith that has defined Biden’s life from his childhood through the Masses he has continued to attend every Saturday evening of every week, was suddenly scrapped, days after his trip to Los Angeles to welcome his new great grandson was redefined by the massive wildfires that broke out while he was there. “Is seeing all this coverage of Carter being a one-term president impacting his psyche about the last days of his presidency?” one former Biden aide told CNN. “The man set out to be president from the day he ran for office. Did he accomplish what he set out to accomplish? Is his legacy good enough for him?”