Don’t be led astray by the humble, “I’m still thinking about running” mantra parsing from Sen. Bernie Sanders’s lips: the man wants to be president. While speculation continues over whether the septuagenarian will decide to launch a second consecutive presidential campaign, the early tea leaves point in the direction of Vermont’s senior senator declaring his candidacy sometime in the early months of 2019.

The bigger question for anyone willing to write about it is not whether Bernie Sanders will run again – it’s whether he has enough fuel in the tank to get him across the finish line.