Joe Biden is always half a step ahead of the conventional wisdom about his presidential plans. When it was widely assumed he wouldn’t run, it was soon reported that he was at least thinking about it. When the consensus shifted to Biden laying in wait for a Hillary Clinton collapse, it was soon reported that he was “increasingly leaning toward” running.

So while Biden may yet surprise Washington again, it seems we do know a few things. The first is that Biden wants to be president. That’s been true since at least the 1980s, before he torpedoed his 1988 campaign, and he might have wanted to be president his whole career.