With President Joe Biden expected to announce he’s running for a second term Tuesday morning, Americans should prepare to hear the word “age” about 18 billion times in news conferences and on cable shows.
Biden, you see, is an older gentleman. He’s presently 80, would be 81 at the 2024 election and, by the rules of math, would leave his second term as an 86-year-old.
Much will be made of Biden’s age, and while it’s an understandable concern, you need only look to the likely slate of Republican presidential candidates to see why it shouldn’t matter.
Biden might be 80 … but Trump is 76 – and indicted
The GOP front-runner is former President Donald Trump, who at 76 is not an avatar for youthful vigor. He was recently indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records. He’s facing a civil trial involving a rape allegation that starts Tuesday in Manhattan, along with an array of other criminal investigations. Oh, and he still denies the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and fomented an attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, until recently viewed by many conservatives as the party’s best hope of moving past Trump, just signed a six-week abortion ban – which will be wildly unpopular among voters in a national election – and is quickly proving himself awkward and unlikable outside his Sunshine State bubble.
Beyond that there’s … Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Or maybe former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was dropped by the network Monday, throws his bow tie in the ring?
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Any Republican presidential candidate will have to bow to the MAGA crowd
The reality is this: Anyone not named Donald Trump will have to survive the wrath of Trump, and will have to kowtow to MAGA enthusiasts who wouldn’t know the word “moderate” if it burst out of the Bud Light cans they just ran over with their trucks. That’s not a recipe for winning over independents, suburban women or really anyone who isn’t already a diehard Trump loyalist. And without bringing in new voters, a GOP presidential candidate can’t win.
Biden being up in years would be a bigger issue for Democrats if the Republican Party didn’t presently have the vibe of an abandoned garbage barge surrounded by angry seagulls.
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Republican attempts to paint Biden as old and infirm haven’t worked
But there’s more to Biden’s viability than just a lack of competent competition on the other side. As much as folks on the right have tried to paint Biden as some bizarre combination of “doddering fool” and “brilliant evil mastermind,” one fact remains: He’s a good campaigner.
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He’s not a great orator, but he connects with people on a human level. Empathy has long been his super power. And whether you believe him or not, he can deliver a message of hope that sounds a lot more reasonable than the doom-and-gloom Trump’s Republican Party is peddling.
A more enlightened electorate is less likely to get hung up on age
Americans are also not as judgmental about age as they once were. As long as Biden remains in good health, I don’t think the majority of people brought up in an “Age Is Just A Number” society are going to see Biden’s higher number as disqualifying. And again, his most likely opponent will be 78 by the time the 2024 election rolls around. It appears we are a country for old men.
For liberals, Biden stands on an array of accomplishments, from a sprawling infrastructure package to the Inflation Reduction Act to the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. He has rallied global support for Ukraine, reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act to help support victims and signed the PACT Act to help veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.
He managed all that in the face of fierce Republican opposition and obstruction, and led his party to far-better-than-expected results in the midterm elections.
It’s possible a Democratic sandwich could win this one
So Biden has a record to run on. Not a record that will make many Republican voters happy, but a strong enough set of wins to give him every right to run again.
Besides, when you look at Trump ranting in campaign videos like a pouty tyrant denied, or you look at DeSantis fighting with Disney or attempting to mimic human behavior, you realize Democrats might be able to run a half-eaten meatball sub and win.
Never count Donald Trump out, but don’t doubt Joe Biden, either
Not that anything is a lock. Not that Biden is a guaranteed winner, or that his age couldn’t become a greater problem in the long months of campaigning ahead.
I once made the mistake of thinking Trump would never become president, and proven dead wrong hung up my prognostication helmet for good.
But as dangerous as it may be to doubt the possibility of Trump or a Trump-like clone catching electoral lighting in a bottle, history has proved it’s equally risky to doubt one Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
He has a way of defying political gravity. And that doesn’t seem to have changed much with age.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
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