President Biden steered us through COVID. Insulin has been capped at $35 for seniors on Medicare, which is good news for those of us with insulin-dependent loved ones in our lives. He brought about a jobs recovery in America, which was battered by a global, once-in-a-century pandemic. The supply chain is fully restored. Biden has strengthened Obamacare by signing the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021. The Inflation Reduction Act, which the President signed in August, reforms Medicare to lower drug costs for tens of millions of senior. the Inflation Reduction Act has created an explosion in green sector jobs that will last far beyond his Presidency.
And yet, according to polls, most Biden’s numbers are spectacularly unspectacular. “According to a new NBCNews poll, 70% of Americans believe Biden should not run for re-election, with 51% of Democrats saying that,” Erin Doherty writes in Axios. Which leads us to the re-election campaign pitch, “TOGETHER, WE CAN FINISH THE JOB FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE,” which implies, in all caps, that the current trajectory is far more important an issue than the age of the chief executive of the country. And Republican strategists, despite having been defeated before, are excited by the prospect of a rematch.
There is, of course, some merit to asking the age question with regards to Biden. The age question does not arise out of nothingness. Even the President himself acknowledges as much. “It's legitimate for people to raise issues about my age,” the President told ABC's David Muir in February of this year.
Biden is the oldest President ever elected and, if re-elected, would be 86 at the end of his second term. That’s not insignificant. It should be added, however, that President Biden is also the most experienced person to become president in US history. Biden was a US Senator for 36 years, with a strong portfolio in domestic, legal and foreign policy. Afterwards, he was one of the most substantial vice presidents, for eight years under Barack Obama. Biden is still also, by all accounts, still sharp and engaged.
Still, ageism, with the possible exception of transphobia, is the last broadly acceptable prejudice in the American workplace. And electing a President is a democratic human resopurces issue.
And yet everywhere in the media, stories are running about Biden’s age, comparing Biden to that of ancient historical figures, even. The fact that Joe Biden is 80 years old and will be 82 at the start of his second term is among the most oft-cited reasons why voters — even Democrats! — think he should not run again. “The president’s age is, clearly, a matter of concern,” notes Evan Vucci in The Conversation. “But the intensity of the questioning over this issue is striking. It would be easy to believe this is the most pressing question for American politics right now.”
As someone who does not give a whit about a President’s age so long as they are still sharp and engaged, this utterly baffles me. A new CBS News/YouGov poll finds that only 28% of Democrat or Democrat-leaning voters are confident of Biden running for re-election. A similar fatigue — though relating more to giving the 76-year old Trump a second term — plagues Trump from across the aisle. From the new PBS NewsHour / NPR / marist poll:
Nearly two in three Americans (64%), similar to 61% in March, say they do not want former President Trump to be president, again. Most Democrats (92%), more than two in three independents (68%), and even 27% of Republicans say they do not want a second Trump Administration. 34% of U.S. residents, including 71% of Republicans, do want Trump back in the White House.
And Americans, particularly the young, want generational change, which will not be forthcoming. A Trump versus Biden rematch leaves us stuck once again in a Boomer shooting match. Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson put it nicely on the Chuck Toddcast.
Johnson: 2024 will be very different from 2016. Exactly every 16 years is a next (generation) election. 1960-1976, we went from Nixon and Ford to Carter. ‘92 to Clinton. ‘08 we went to Obama. The next one should be 2024 …
Chuck Todd: … Well, its not going to be if its Trump and Biden. Its still transitional, then we postpone it to 2028
Johnson: Right. And I believe that as good Biden has been as President and as competent as his administration has been, there is a thirst for the next gen. People want to move on. We’ve had the Baby Boomers, were born in the 40s,
Chuck: — And wont let go of power.
Johnson: In power since 1992 … my sense is that there is a craving for the next generation to move on and take power.
Wow.
Biden, to his credit, is not going to play the victim in this campaign. He has every right, though. The media is feeding the poll results with excessive coverage of his age — ageism — which is not warranted. But Biden is not going to campaign as a victim, complaining of media coverage. He will leave aggrieved victimhood to the Republican nominee, whether Trump or the not-Trump. Biden, by contrast, will attempt to make the argument that he is lucid, sharp and engaged by being so on the campaign trail. And that speaks to his character.
“Carlson's 8pm ET primetime show has been one of the most-viewed cable news shows for years … It routinely averaged over 3 million viewers per night, an astonishing figure compared to rivals MSNBC and CNN, which averaged roughly 1 million and 703,000 viewers in the 8pm hour for the first quarter of the year.” (Sara Fischer/Axios)
Tucker Carlson Gets Torn to Shreds by Meyers, Kimmel, Daily Show (Vanity Fair)
“Still, Carlson’s ouster, like the shuttering of the News of the World, can at least be seen as a possible lightning rod for widespread fury about a broader moral rot—or a sacrifice that Murdoch can withstand without losing his deeper power.” (CJR)
“We know the basic contours of how the decision was made (Lachlan Murdoch and Suzanne Scott came to agreement Friday evening about canceling Carlson's show and informed him on Monday morning, just before publicly announcing the news). But we are unable to say definitively, for now, what led to the firing of one of the most powerful figures in modern American media and politics.” (Oliver Darcy/Reliable Sources)
“(Cory) Kennedy didn’t necessarily aspire to be a model, though she landed on the cover of several magazines, or a writer, though she started a blog and got a fashion column in Nylon, or an actress, though she guest-starred in the first episode of the 90210 reboot in 2008.” (NYMag)
Murdoch firm ‘paid secret phone-hacking settlement to Prince William’ (The Guardian)
Donald Trump had the raw power on the right. But it was Carlson who set the ideological agenda. (TNY)