WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run
-
Yeah, clearly Biden should retire.
-
Yeah, clearly Biden should retire.
@Doctor-Phibes said in WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run:
Yeah, clearly Biden should retire.
I think it would be good to have a new slate of candidates from both sides - preferably younger - and not entirely insane.
-
Overall I agree with the article, indeed Biden should not seek a second term.
My only quibble is this:
Enemies size up leaders as much as they do nations when they make their calculations to seize territory or seek other strategic advantage. There is a strong case to believe that Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine in part because he judged that Mr. Biden lacked the determination to resist after his retreat from Afghanistan.
I have yet to hear a strong case for that either whole or in part.
-
Age is only one of the reasons the President shouldn’t run again.
The White House is whispering that next week President Biden will announce his intention to run for a second term, though the polls say that even most Democrats hope he doesn’t. The public understands what Mr. Biden apparently won’t admit: that electing an octogenarian in obvious decline for another four years could be an historic mistake.
No doubt it’s hard to walk away from the Oval Office after working for five decades to get there. Flying Marine One home for the weekends beats Amtrak. The chance to pull the levers of power is intoxicating, and that’s also true for the advisers who have pushed him in such a sharply progressive direction in his first term. They know Mr. Biden will lead wherever they want him to go.
But asking the country to elect a man who is 80 years old and whose second term would end when he is 86 is a risky act that borders on selfish. It’s impossible to know Mr. Biden’s real physical and mental state because the White House goes to great lengths to hide it. But his decline is clear to anyone who isn’t willfully blind. He rarely holds a press conference, and his words are as scripted as possible to avoid embarrassing stumbles that he nonetheless continues to make.
Different people age at different rates, but the risk of an accelerated decline for Mr. Biden is considerable. The chance that he could serve a full second term is hardly assured.
This means Americans could be voting for his running mate to take over in a second term, which as of now would be Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Biden would be running on a vow to serve a complete term that he knows he might not be able to keep. At the very least, he owes the country more than a Rose Garden repeat of his Wilmington basement campaign strategy from 2020.
For Democrats, there’s no small risk that Mr. Biden could decline noticeably in the 19 months until Election Day in 2024. In that event, voters on the fence could swing toward a Republican nominee who can at least meet the rigors of the office. Yes, even Donald Trump.
Mr. Biden may believe he’s the only Democrat who could beat Mr. Trump, but many others also could. And what if Republicans nominate someone else? GOP voters could decide they don’t want to repeat 2020, and a younger GOP nominee would have an advantage over Mr. Biden as the more vigorous candidate of generational change. A younger Democrat would have a comparable edge over Mr. Trump.
Many Democrats think Mr. Biden is the only man for the job because otherwise they would be stuck with Ms. Harris, a demonstrably bad candidate who has shown little capacity as Veep. But if Mr. Biden bowed out now, Democratic Governors and others would have ample time to organize a campaign and compete for the nomination. The way to get stuck with Ms. Harris is if Mr. Biden clears the field but then has a health setback that forces him to withdraw after the primaries are mostly done.
There are also political risks for Mr. Biden—not least the investigations into son Hunter and the Biden family’s business. Only the Bidens know where this might lead, but the Republicans aren’t going to stop pursuing the story. The way to end all that is not to run.
But the best reason not to run is for the patriotic good of the country. The world is growing more dangerous by the week, and the U.S. faces more formidable adversaries than any time since the height of the Cold War. It will take more than a figurehead President to confront and counter them. In 2008 Hillary Clinton ran an ad saying that she was prepared to take a 3 a.m. phone call in a crisis. Could an 84-year-old Joe Biden take a 3 p.m. call?
Enemies size up leaders as much as they do nations when they make their calculations to seize territory or seek other strategic advantage. There is a strong case to believe that Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine in part because he judged that Mr. Biden lacked the determination to resist after his retreat from Afghanistan. Xi Jinping will not shrink from exploiting Mr. Biden out of Chinese respect for his elders.
Mr. Biden can say he saved the country from a second Trump term. We would not call Mr. Biden’s Presidency a success, but no doubt many Democrats would. By their lights he can point to his Covid and climate spending and his resistance to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Second terms are rarely successful, and Mr. Biden could give a Democratic successor a chance to serve for eight years.
If Mr. Biden ignores all this and does run again, then some prominent Democrat would do the country a service by running against him in the primaries. The polls show that Democratic voters want another candidate. At this moment of great economic and strategic challenge, the United States needs a better presidential choice in 2024 than a redo of Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump.
@George-K said in WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run:
Biden’s Second-Term Mistake
Age is only one of the reasons the President shouldn’t run again.Unless the Democrats have no one to run against Trump with any hope of winning, and can't find anyone willing to spend the treasure and effort courting defeat, and they're floating Biden as a placeholder like they did last time, and feel helpless to do anything else.
In the words of Ivan Drago, "If he dies, he dies."
-
@Doctor-Phibes said in WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run:
Yeah, clearly Biden should retire.
I think it would be good to have a new slate of candidates from both sides - preferably younger - and not entirely insane.
@kluurs said in WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run:
younger - and not entirely insane.
Not insane is good.
I believe that kind of thinking got Mr. Carter elected, he was about as far from Mr. Nixon as you could get.
Not insane should do well.
-
@kluurs said in WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run:
younger - and not entirely insane.
Not insane is good.
I believe that kind of thinking got Mr. Carter elected, he was about as far from Mr. Nixon as you could get.
Not insane should do well.
@Copper said in WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run:
@kluurs said in WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run:
younger - and not entirely insane.
Not insane is good.
I believe that kind of thinking got Mr. Carter elected, he was about as far from Mr. Nixon as you could get.
Not insane should do well.
Yeah, but who was more effective, Nixon or Carter?
-
Effective at what?
Mr. Nixon wins China policy, thanks to Mr. Kissinger.
Mr. Carter was more effective at sincerity. And he was a nuclear engineer!
@Copper said in WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run:
Effective at what?
Mr. Nixon wins China policy, thanks to Mr. Kissinger.
Mr. Carter was more effective at sincerity. And he was a nuclear engineer!
Uh, wouldn't that be nuke-ler?
-
@Copper said in WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run:
Effective at what?
Mr. Nixon wins China policy, thanks to Mr. Kissinger.
Mr. Carter was more effective at sincerity. And he was a nuclear engineer!
Uh, wouldn't that be nuke-ler?
@Jolly said in WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run:
@Copper said in WSJ Editorial Board: Biden Shouldn't Run:
Effective at what?
Mr. Nixon wins China policy, thanks to Mr. Kissinger.
Mr. Carter was more effective at sincerity. And he was a nuclear engineer!
Uh, wouldn't that be nuke-ler?
New kew ler
-
Why, it's almost as though it were coordinated, LOL.
Biden Should Take Voters’ Concerns About Age Seriously
Only 47 percent of Democrats want to see Joe Biden on the ballot in 2024, according to the latest Associated Press poll. That’s not because they think he’s done a bad job in office. Democrats tend to like President Biden and continue to give him good marks on handling the economy and foreign policy.
But many Democrats, particularly younger ones, are worried that he will simply be too old to be effective in a second term, which would end when he is 86. “My problem with him running in 2024 is that he’s just so old,” one Democrat told pollsters.
That may be deeply unfair — people age at different rates — and in Mr. Biden’s case, it’s impossible to deny that politics and conspiracy theories, rather than facts, fuel at least some of the concern. But candidates shouldn’t pretend, as Mr. Biden often does, that advanced age isn’t an issue. Mr. Biden is 80 now, the oldest American to serve as president, and even supporters, including the political strategist David Axelrod, have expressed deep worries that his age will be both a political liability in 2024 and a barrier to a successful second term. If Mr. Biden runs again, as he recently said he intends to, questions will persist about his age until he does more to assure voters that he is up to the job.
Mr. Biden’s age makes him an outlier even in an era when the nation’s political leadership is getting older. The current Senate, where the average age is 63.9 years, is the second oldest since 1789. The House, where the average age is 57.5 years, is the third oldest. By comparison, the average age in the United States is 38.8 years.
Concerns about age — both in terms of fitness for office and being out of touch with the moment — are legitimate, as Mr. Biden acknowledged in an interview in February with ABC News. His standard line, repeated in that interview, is: “The only thing I can say is, ‘Watch me.’”But Mr. Biden has given voters very few chances to do just that — to watch him — and his refusal to engage with the public regularly raises questions about his age and health.
The usual White House method of demonstrating a president’s mastery is to take tough questions in front of cameras, but Mr. Biden has not taken advantage of that opportunity, as The Times reported on Friday. He has held fewer news conferences and media interviews than most of his modern predecessors. Since 1923, only Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan took fewer questions per month from reporters, and neither represents a model of presidential openness that Mr. Biden should want to emulate. His reticence has created an opening for critics and skeptics.
The president also needs to talk about his health openly and without embarrassment, and to end the pretense that it doesn’t matter. Those who are watching him with an open mind have seen a strong performance this year. His State of the Union address on Feb. 7 shattered the Republican attempts to portray him as doddering. With a passion rarely seen at one of these speeches — let alone in his political history — Mr. Biden presented a remarkably effective defense of his presidency and gave a preview of what is likely to be an imminent re-election campaign.
The Times reported last summer that Mr. Biden’s overall energy level has declined, and he continues to stumble over words in his public appearances. But those flaws alone don’t signal a politician who is too old to run again. His first term, in fact, is already full of accomplishment: The economy has added 12.6 million jobs since he took office, inflation is cooling, and he has signed significant legislation to fight climate change, improve access to health care, and make investments in manufacturing and infrastructure. He has stood up to Russia’s destructive campaign in Ukraine, and rallied the West to Ukraine’s side.
Nonetheless, as Mr. Biden nears his actuarial life expectancy, concerns about his ability to handle the demands of campaigning and a potential second term are unlikely to disappear. Only a combination of performance and complete candor will change the minds of skeptical voters. Old age remains a sensitive topic, and many people, particularly men, are reluctant to discuss personal infirmities for fear of demonstrating weakness or being pushed aside by impatient younger generations. There is good reason for the federal government’s prohibition of age discrimination in employment — a protection that begins at age 40. Ageism is real.
That law, however, doesn’t apply to people who are running for office. Voters have every right to ask questions about the medical condition of a candidate who wants their support. In 2016 both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton gave the public very few details about their health. (Mr. Trump released a particularly preposterous doctor’s letter claiming he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”)
Mr. Biden acknowledged during the lead-up to the 2020 campaign that he was “chronologically” old but said it was up to voters to decide whether that was important. In that election, against an opponent who was only four years younger, the answer was clearly no. In November 2021, he released a medical report that said he was a “healthy, vigorous 78-year-old” and noted nothing more serious than a stiffened gait due to spinal changes and some acid reflux that caused him to cough.
His most recent health summary, released on Feb. 16, said much the same thing, describing him as a “healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” But his cognitive abilities went unmentioned. That’s something he should discuss publicly and also demonstrate to the voters, who expect the president to reflect the nation’s strength.
If he runs again, Mr. Biden will need to provide explicit reassurance to voters; many of them have seen family members decline rapidly in their 80s. Americans are watching what Mr. Biden says and does, just as he has asked them to do.
-
Yes, I could see Youngkin in the race. I think he has made a good impression here in VA.
Young, strong, active, polite could sell.
