He just doesn’t have enough scandals
JV Last has a very interesting look at the “age problem” in today’s Bulwark that you should read in its entirety if you have the time. He points out all the usual stuff about Biden, who has always been gaffe prone, the stutter etc and points out that Trump is having many similar gaffes and “senior moments” on the trail so the issue in reality is a wash. We have two old candidates and that’s just how it is. But then he explores why this has become such a focus of the campaign, even before the Hur report:
Again, the issue is not the discussion of Biden’s age but the disproportionate focus on it. It’s worth speaking clearly about the reasons for this dynamic among Republicans, among Democrats, and in the press.
For Republicans, Biden’s age is just about the only true thing they can attack him on. In early 2023, it looked like the economy would be a liability for the president. But with solid growth, low unemployment, rising wages, and tamed inflation, it’s looking strong enough now that Trump is preposterously trying to claim credit for the stock market reaching new highs.
Immigration and the border will be a major Republican line of attack this year. But Biden recently agreed to tougher border security and asylum laws, and congressional Republicans rejected it at the behest of Donald Trump. The political attack relies on lying that Biden wants “open borders.”
Meanwhile, attacks on Biden’s son Hunter have fallen flat, because he’s not in government, has no apparent influence, and the accusations against him basically amount to Imagine Hunter did what Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump actually did.
Biden’s age, however, offers Republicans a line of attack with a basis in fact, and it plays into voters’ existing concerns.
Age talk is a double-edged sword: In emphasizing Biden’s age, Republicans also inherently lower expectations for Biden, including for debates. Typically, campaigns try to lower expectations for their own candidate, setting up post-event spin that they outperformed. With Biden, his opponents insist he’s a drooling dementia patient who can’t string a sentence together, then he waltzes over that low bar, as in the 2020 debates.
I think that’s worth looking at. Here’s Biden today, employing something that’s going to be vitally important: humor:
He also discusses the Democrats who are currently calling for the smelling salts like a bunch of Aunt Pittypats:
Some elements of the Democratic coalition have always disliked Biden and they now wish he’d step aside for a more progressive candidate. Some worry about Biden’s re-electability, and wish he’d step aside for a younger candidate. But there’s nothing close to a consensus alternative among Democrats, Vice President Kamala Harris’s net approval is even lower than Biden’s, and he’s running, so it’s moot anyway.
As a result, Democrats’ Biden age discourse is often second- or third-order. There’s concern about his age among voters, yes, but more expressions of concern about that concern. There isn’t enough, there’s too much, you’re not allowed to say it, you won’t shut up about it, etc.
For example, the New York Times quotes Obama strategist David Axelrod lamenting that the special counsel’s comments on Biden’s memory go “to the core of what is plaguing Biden politically.” Interestingly, the Times article introduces Axelrod as “one of the Democratic Party’s leading figures warning about how voters view Mr. Biden’s age.” Note the language: not warning that Biden’s age means he might not be up to the job, but warning that voters see it as a negative.
Last excuses Axelrod and his ilk here for simply saying what democratic strategists need to be concerned about but I disagree. it’s Axelrod and his ilk self-righteously trying to place themselves above the petty concerns of Democratic strategists to preen for the public about what dispassionate observers they are. They are running with the media pack. There are always Democrats who for personal or professional reasons are ready to puff themselves up as being smarter than the alleged hacks who are trying to get the candidate elected.
I don’t know what David Axelrod has against Biden but he’s been hostile to him his whole term. Maybe his old boss Barack could have a chat with him. This is about the future of the world.
This brings up the media and he makes a smart observation. The sheer volume of Trump scandals creates a distortion. Since the media thinks being fair and balanced means they have to offer equal negative coverage to each candidate this is what happens:
To make the levels of negative coverage remotely similar, Biden’s age and mental acuity have to, on their own, balance out many things (including Trump’s age and mental acuity). Think of it this way:
So coverage in the press often inflates Biden’s age as an issue and effectively downplays the importance of Trump’s malfeasance, since there’s so much of it.
That’s absolutely the case. But I also believe that the media is subject to right wing propaganda, particularly if it is snarky and nasty. It just turns them on and you can feel it when it happens. Trump’s schtick long ago stop having that effect but Biden’s “age problem” is fertile ground for this febrile type of pile-on and it creates a group think that many of them seemingly can’t resist. You saw it in living color at the disgraceful press conference last Friday.
The fact is that barring some unpredictable health event, these are the two candidates. And as Last writes:
[I]f you think old and sometimes forgetful is worse than or equal to old, sometimes forgetful, corrupt, bigoted, anti-democracy, criminal, serially lying, and encouraging political violence, or that these things deserve approximately equal attention, that’s nuts.
He’s right. It’s nuts. And it’s going to take some unnecessary heavy lifting to get past the Democratic hand-wringers and the press to make that clear. It should be necessary but it is.