Joe Biden is running for president. After a contrived, months-long will-he-won’t-he, the former vice president finally announced today, officially entering the 2020 Democratic contest as its front-runner after a rocky lead-up.

Despite the goodwill and name recognition among Democrats won through eight loyal years at Obama’s side, Biden — whose last two presidential campaigns spectacularly crashed and burned and unspectacularly petered out, respectively — will find this time around much harder going. The reasons for that are also the reasons why Biden is uniquely ill-suited as a leader in the current moment.

If Biden has an ethos, it’s an antiquated, anachronistic centrism, not even focused on finding a pragmatic middle that most of the public can get behind, but on “reaching across the aisle.” In other words, somewhere between centrist Democrats and an increasingly far-right GOP lies the sensible, moderate, center-right voter that he believes populates the country.