How Are Concerns Over Biden's Age Impacting His Reelection Chances?

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Last week’s report from Special Counsel Robert Hur renewed debate regarding President Joe Biden’s age and ability to win reelection and lead the country for an additional four years.

From the Left: David Rothkopf (Lean Left bias) wrote that Democrats need a “reality check.” Instead of denying Biden’s advanced age, Rothkopf calls for Biden’s team to “own it,” writing, “Let’s see more of him not in staged settings, but in the kind of informal, unstaged videos that matter most today on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok.” A writer in Vox (Left bias) outlined the process of replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee, determining it to be a “herculean, if not impossible, task” and concluding, “If you’re a Democrat, or want to beat Donald Trump, it looks like it’s Biden or bust.”

From the Right: Charles C. W. Cooke (Right bias) argued that there is “no chance that the Democrats will be able to get around Joe Biden’s obvious decline.” Outlining why the Democrat’s current strategy won’t work moving forward, Cooke concluded, “President Biden cannot fake being competent because the people who are ultimately empowered to judge his competence have no great obligation to pretend that they cannot see the truth.” A writer in the Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias) echoed concerns, writing, “None of us gets out of here alive, and 81-year-old Biden is not going to level out onto a plateau of acceptable lucidity. He is going to step down again and again until he reaches the cellar door.”

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There is an element of Scooby-Dooism to the Democrats’ erroneous conviction that, if they just insist vehemently enough that Joe Biden is not, in fact, clearly too old to be president of these United States, they will be able to persuade the public that it is true. “We would have got away with it,” Biden’s apologists seem to be muttering aloud, “if it hadn’t been for that pesky Robert Hur!”

Joe Biden's advisers knew in 2020 that his age was an issue for Americans but they successfully painted him as a competent leader who would restore normalcy to the White House after Donald Trump's chaotic presidency.

Now that Biden is 81, opinion polls show age is even more of a concern for voters ahead of November's election.

In office, Biden's gait has stiffened, he is slower on his feet and he regularly makes verbal mix-ups during speeches, at times confusing the names of world leaders.

Democrats are in need of a reality check. The stakes are too high for us to indulge in the kind of denial, self-deception, and illusions that are a too-common reaction to many of the biggest challenges we face as a party and a country. Indeed, reality is our greatest strength and our best defense. Only failing to acknowledge it can undo us.