The issue of Joe Biden's age is the darkest, most persistent cloud that hangs over his reelection effort. So widespread is the fear that the octogenarian president is well past his sell-by date, and so broad is the public sentiment that Biden is too old for the job that it's beginning to rattle โ and rankle โ Team Biden's boosters.
As the Washington Post reports:
โฆBiden's allies are frustrated by the hand-wringing from an anxious faction of the party, and even as campaign officials point to the president's record of defying skeptics, they are strategizing internally about how to best combat the unmistakable nervousness.
Such โWashington whispersโ have become far too common among โbed-wettingโ Democrats, said Jim Messina, who ran Barack Obama's 2012 campaign and recently put together a 24-slide deck aiming to calm the jitters, which he sent to prominent Democratic officeholders.
Showing brass and flinging insults is one way to cope with an issue that won't fade. But it's also a sign you're worried, too. Deeplyโฆthough perhaps not quite enough (yet) to join the โbed-wettingโ ranks.
What courtiers like Messina either cannot grasp or refuse to admit is that even Democratic voters have a problem with an aged Biden. They want someone new to carry the banner in 2024.
The major problem for all of them, however, is there is no single, logical, agreed-upon, formidable candidate waiting to take up that challenge and replace Biden (never mind challenge him for the nomination).
Yes, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is seething with presidential ambition. There is even a (muted and uncertain) buzz for Vice President Kamala Harris. Others who rise every morning to the sound of โHail to the Chiefโ on their alarm clocks would also run for the nomination.
But the inescapable fact is that unless and until Biden himself decides to step aside, those would-be nominees will have to wait until 2028. The current nomination is Mr. Biden's to lose, and he shows no signs of getting out โ let alone a vestigial awareness that his time is past.
Back in July, Republican strategist Mike Murphy wrote that what Biden really needs isn't another hanger-on to tell him everything is great but a โtrue friendโ who will tell him the very hard truth about running again:
This second term caper is a big, dangerous, selfish mistake. And with the grim specter of the Mad King Donald Trump back within reach of the Oval as a potential GOP nominee, the stakes are way too high to fool around. Biden, simply put, is too damn old to be as formidable a candidate as this moment in American history demands.
Few, if any, modern presidents have such true friends willing to utter such hard truths. Which is why Biden is likely to plunge ahead, regardless of the risks to himself, his party or pretty much anyone else.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions ofย American Liberty News.
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1 Comment
Short of flat-out fraud, the Dem’s don’t stand a chance in Hades of keeping the White House in 2024, no matter who their next candidate is.
As far as the field of Republican candidates go, Trump has already crossed the finish line while the rest of ’em haven’t even left the starting gate yet.
Let’s face facts – there ain’t no two ways about it. Folks with terminal TDS may as well start committing hara-kiri as soon as possible, so they won’t have to endure the excruciating pain of watching America become great again.
Oh, the HORROR of it all !!!!!!