Is Joe Biden Too Senior of a Statesman?

Some Democrats worry while others brush the question off.

By and
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President Joe Biden laughs during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Joe Biden’s most formidable opponent in 2024 may be himself. That’s how many Democrats see it.

“Do I wish he was younger? Yeah, I do,” said a supportive House Democrat who represents a battleground district. 

As the 80-year-old president of the United States begins his reelection bid, Democratic insiders say they aren’t fretting any more than usual about the myriad political challenges Biden faces, such as a volatile national economy or his underwater job approval. It’s Biden’s advanced age that concerns many in his party.

Democrats don’t buy into Republican taunts that Biden is cognitively or physically impaired and being ordered around by senior staff. And they say they are confident the president can do his job and campaign for a second term without the “benefit” of a pandemic to keep him off the trail for extended periods, as was the case in 2020.

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  1. Avatar photo
    DougAz

    Tempest in a teapot.

    Liberal (now) me voted for Reagan in 84. He had far more cognition and age related deterioration than Biden.

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      JohnM.

      You're joking, right? His cognitive dissonance is not simply a 'tempest in a teapot'. I'll just refer you to literally dozens of film clips out there that have been taken taken these last few years for proof.

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        DougAz

        Reagan's was obvious to many, certainly myself. The risk was that this was the "guy" going up against, by comparison to Putinn a much more organized Soviet military and nuclear force.

        It really is a tempest in a teapot. I think Biden has a superb cabinet of the key advisors. Understands how to ger better people than either Trump or DeSantis. Delegates and listens.

        Ronnie also had a superior cabinet and props to GHW "CIA" Bush-1.

        Same with "video Gameboy" Bush Jr. Dick Cheney, for as much as i disdain him, was brilliant snd on top of things for Bush Jr.

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          JohnM.

          If Reagan had racked up anywhere near the number of virtually incoherent moments on tape as Biden has, we might agree.

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            Mattjabour

            From what I understand, those gaffes are more of a Biden feature than an old age thing. H.W. Bush and Quayle both had similar numbers of gaffes to one another.

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          2. Jack H Wolf

            You know I hear this all the time and one could cherry pick any human being and make them appear like idiots. I think your view is a function of your politics. Maybe mine is too, I am a conservative Democrat, but I dont support Biden for the nomination and part of that is his age.
            I spent my career as a geriatric physician and nursing home director and I would have no more idea that Biden has dementia than that he has erectile dysfunction.
            He actually seems pretty smart to me- not like Bush Sr. or Obamas wonkiness but as a politically savvy guy who beat out a Dem field with less money. He outdebated the his Dem opponents and Trump in 2020. He gave a good State of the Union. I dont see it. Of course people can cover up dementia, but it is not discovered by partisans focusing on every gaffe and miswording which he has done for a long time.
            Most elderly have some degree of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) which is the classic not remembering names, or for me at 73, meaning to write house and when rereading it put down horse. If I didnt edit each post, by the standard for Biden I would be demented, but the thing about MCI is that it doesn't reflect on judgement or temperament. I dont see Biden doing the irrational things that Trump routinely does and if Biden did I might more strongly suspect dementia. But he appoints reasonably intelligent people and sticks with them instead of Trumps hiring people, making enemies of them and ditching them.
            I think there is a mean streak amongst partisans which is more about being hateful than objective. I heard numerous people claim Fettermen was brain dead, when I have seen many people post stroke and know well that the typical aphasia has no bearing on cognitive ability, and just last week I listened to him give an interview that showed him to be intelligent, thoughtful.
            All that said, I did not support Biden, and any 80 year old is at risk for dementia, and I'd love to see a younger more popular candidate for my party like Roy Cooper or ANdy Bashear.

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            DougAz

            Well truth be told, Reagan had a half century of movie and tv role playing, script reading and the best delivery since JFK.

            Biden is a stutterer. I take that into account on delivery and interpretation. I can understand why some don't.

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  2. Pwilsonlex

    Patricia Wilson
    Biden's age is a legitimate concern. However, Donald Trump is only 4 years younger and will be 78 in 2024, and we don't see or hear much about that. Essentially, they are the same age. As an older person myself, I would prefer to see some younger people taking the helm.

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  3. Pwilsonlex

    Biden's age is a legitimate concern. However, Donald Trump is only 4 years younger and will be 78 in 2024, and we don't see or hear much about that. Essentially, they are the same age. As an older person myself, I would prefer to see some younger people taking the helm.

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  4. Cliffdwellers

    Joe Biden has never been a "statesman." Throughout his career he has put on the airs of a statesman.

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    Barry Alexander

    I think what was stated at the beginning sums things up pretty well: if he has an actual medical issue between now and November 2024, it will become an issue. Otherwise not.

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    BlackAndWhiteReruns

    For the Left, having an incapacitated president is a feature, not a bug.

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      Mudskipper

      For the Right, having an authoritarian, unprincipled president is a feature, not a bug.

      See how easy that was?

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      1. DTruitt

        Usually what is easy is wrong.

        Everything looks easy when you don’t know what you’re talking about. See?

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          Mudskipper

          And my point just sailed right over your head.

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        BlackAndWhiteReruns

        Sorry, I wouldn't know. I never voted for anyone like that.

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      3. Cattaniesq

        Easy? Or silly.

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          Mudskipper

          Silly. And that's the point. BlackAndWhiteReruns comment was also silly and cheap partisan hackery.

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          1. Jack H Wolf

            I agree. Dispatch by its nature seems to be mostly old line conservatives with enough sense to see Trumpism for what it is but a lot of liberals like myself who are becoming more conservative as the wokesters take my party.
            Statements like "For the Left, having an incapacitated president is a feature" is just scratching ones partisan itch and with as much content as "your mother wears army boots". Rational Rs and Ds are more in need of working together, what with the crazies on the right and the left with the socialists temporarily at bay, but the new moral majority telling everybody how to use their pronouns.
            The partisan name calling doesn't help and rarely invites intelligent discussion.

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  7. Austin R

    If he wants to cement it (assuming a trajectory where Trump makes the finals), he should ice Kamala and install... frankly, any inoffensive anodyne half-competent person as the 2024 VP candidate. Polis perhaps, so he can check off a different box on the progressive checklist.

    Certain coastal elite circles would have a case of the faints, but most of America would probably breathe a sigh of relief.

    Naturally, this won't happen because we can't have nice things.

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      George.Skinner

      The problem for Biden is that dropping Kamala Harris might have more political downside than upside. When Biden picked Harris as his running mate in 2020, the framing was a younger politician representing a transition to a new generation of leaders, and also the powerful symbolism of the first Black woman as part of a presidential ticket. I'd argue that the latter was more important than the former, because Harris has already spectacularly flamed out in the Democratic primaries and was not highly regarded by either moderates or progressives. The problem is the symbolism of *dropping* a Black woman is not going to play well with key Democratic constituencies, not just coastal elites (it was Black women voters who delivered for Biden in the South Carolina primary.) I think Harris's political ambitions and political tin ear will prevent her from bowing out quietly to mitigate that problem. Live by identity politics, die by identity politics.

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      1. Austin R

        I’d be willing to gamble or at least poll to see if the amount of never-trump independents gained would replace the leftist revolt from that move.

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    2. Kittcomm

      FDR got rid of his VP Henry Wallace in 1944 and substituted Harry Truman. There is precedent.

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      1. Goatprairie

        Lincoln got rid of Hannibal Hamlin. Actually, the party got rid of Hamlin and nominated Andrew Johnson in his stead.

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    Husker1740

    You heard a lot during the Trump years that most GOP voters and politicians let their partisanship blind them from the glaring shortcomings (understatement) of Donald Trump. Is it not the same thing here with democrats and liberals with Joe Biden’s age? How is it not obvious to everyone, including Biden, that he should not run? Besides the legitimate odds of death based on the actuarial charts, he’s very clearly declining. To ignore that is to be as blinded as the Trump GOP, in my opinion. I am obviously wishing Biden the best, but man… he is setting the country up for a calamitous situation.

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      BlackAndWhiteReruns

      Sorry, but the factcheckers of the country are almost three years into their vacation. Maybe if Cheeto Jeezus tweets loud enough they might wake back up.

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  9. Avatar photo
    Bill B

    We can natter on about Biden's age and Harris's lack of Presidential chops but I don't see anyone waiting in the wings to rescue us from what is a foregone conclusion; it will be a Biden/Harris ticket. It ain't Kennedy/Johnson or FDR/Truman but it's what we have to work with.

    DeSantis, with all the charm of a one-legged school-yard bully, doesn't make it through a national primary process without face-planting and Pence has all the charisma of stale Wonder bread. Nicki who? Trump becomes the Republican nominee.

    So its Biden/Harris stumbling through another four years or it's Trump and chaos, Constitutional crisis and civil war. After Jan 6, anyone who doesn't believe that a second Trump Presidential term isn't a disaster of Biblical proportions needs to be kept away from sharp objects.

    Biden/Harris look like Mt Rushmore when you consider the alternative.

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      DougCLE

      “Biblical” proportions? You mean fire and brimstone coming down from the sky? Rivers and seas boiling? Forty years of darkness?Earthquakes, volcanoes? The dead rising from the grave? Human sacrifice? Dogs and cats, living together? Mass hysteria?

      That kind of Biblical proportions?

      On a more serious note, the problem with this logic is that, if the orange disaster were to somehow eke out a second presidential win, then Biden’s age and increasingly obvious decrepitude, combined with Harris’s political incompetence and general unlikeability, will have played a significant part in that victory. American memories are short, and when you present people with two bad choices, you can’t always guarantee they will pick the one you consider less bad.

      So if there is nattering to be done about the Biden/Harris ticket, now is the time to do it. I do agree that it is too late to change the top of the ticket, but I wish he would consider swapping out his running mate to someone voters would feel more confident about picking up the reins, should he keel over at a state dinner.

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        Bill B

        "Biblical" proportions may be a stretch but definitely worse than New Coke. I agree that Biden would be served better by another running mate. Either it's too early tactically to dump her or the cost of dumping her for another VP is prohibitive. Either way it will be Biden and a less than perfect VP choice.

        We make our choice knowing all the bad stuff that preceded it and that will flow from it. In this particular contest it is the choice between Order and Chaos. And this is certain, DJT will leave a lot of broken and bloody crockery in his wake storming through the china shop.

        "If, as Henry Kissinger once quipped, American elites are unique in their disdain for realism and realists, it can only be because they have no sense of the tragic: no awareness that struggle is not only about seeking justice but about seeking the lesser evil in an intractable world. There are many ways to fail, and some are better than others."

        Kaplan, Robert D.. The Tragic Mind

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          DougCLE

          (The Biblical proportions thing was a Ghostbusters reference, if you didn't pick up on that.)

          I guess my point is that you and I can talk about compromise all day long, but it doesn't change the calculus of the vast swaths of not-particularly-political Americans who mostly vote their gut. You're saying that we should be realists and accept the imperfect over the actively bad. I'm not telling you that you're wrong; I'm telling you that you're saying it to the wrong people. If Biden's age and Harris's unlikability combine to tank their campaign, it won't be because you failed to convince *me*.

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    2. R. Rice

      If Biden/Harris would just stumble through - that doesn't sound so bad. But that line of thinking doesn't address that while he's stumbling, his administration is effecting many, many changes by executive orders and administrative law that are on the Mt Rushmore of bad ideas and outside the norms of history. I know we are all not supposed to worry about culture wars - but leave the kids alone with the gender identity and "care" stuff! Don't infest every federal program with "equity" requirements. Inflation, the border, the suicidal energy policies. These things find a foothold and will be difficult to eradicate. Of course no to Trump but no way I'm buying that four years of Biden / Harris is not that bad.

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        Bill B

        "Outside norms of history" is a pretty big area. While Biden/Harris may be trying to hard to keep the Progressive Left under the tent I have to believe they can do the political arithmetic when that support starts subtracting from votes. I suspect and really hope Biden doesn't see much more room to run on the culture front. There is already an appreciable amount of pushback by liberals and moderates lately.

        All that other stuff we've been fighting about for awhile - none of it is existentially dangerous although global climate change is a good bet and emergent AI is definitely going to kill us all to deliver eye-watering profits for free-market tech-bros. But it's not as if the Right-wing hasn't made it a project to retrieve the worst norms of history and dismantle the democratic struts of democracy - purportedly because liberals make them do it.

        Like I said. It sucks. It's tragic but we have bad choices and one will get us average to incompetent governance but the other brings us sheer bloody anarchy. If you think "drag queen story hour" and trans-ideology is bad don't kid yourself that it can't get so much worse. You can always comfort yourself that Republicans have managed to stack the Supreme Court with conservative justices.

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        1. R. Rice

          Denouncing one side does not preclude one from demanding much better from, and not making excuses for, the other. The Biden admin is not benign or average or even incompetent - a much different beast than those shining Obama years. I get your point - it sucks and everyone has to deal with it as best they can in their heart. But I'm not down with the better of the worst options.

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            Bill B

            "I'm not down with the better of the worst options."

            Then you are a romantic.

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      CynthiaW

      What do you have against amputees, as a class?

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        DougCLE

        Amputees of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your… your, uh… whoo boy. Can we start again?

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          CynthiaW

          ... extraneous appendages?

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            DougCLE

            I'd have said "remaining appendages".

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        Bill B

        Well, hello to you too Cynthia.

        You mean like the proletariat or the intelligentsia? Didn't know amputees were a class.

        Thinking more along the lines of the "one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest" or the Black Knight in Monty Python's "Holy Grail".

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          CynthiaW

          I get the imagery. The phrasing seemed to indicate that a one-legged school-yard bully was less charming than a two-legged school-yard bully.

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            Bill B

            Hieroglyphic references are apparently part of the aging process.

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    4. Avatar photo
      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      I’ve seen mount Rushmore at night, under the lights. All the cracks and wrinkles, the crumbling façade. Yes, that reminds me of Joe Biden all right! 🤠

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        Bill B

        At my age it reminds me of a lot of people I know.... me especially. I'd rather have old Joe trying to figure out where he parked the Vette than Donny screaming for the football because his Double Whopper was cold.

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  10. Jack H Wolf

    As a conservative Dem who started a FB group 'Roy Cooper for President in 2024" I was truly hoping that an alternative emerged, and only partly b/c of the age factor, but more so in that Biden just isnt popular,
    Biden is currently trailing Trump in head to head polling (RCP aggregate) by -0.5 where he was at +7.5 in Nov 2020. He only won by 0.6% in the tipping point state (WI, tipping point = the state where if the vote moved equally to Trump in all states, would have given him victory). So ignoring the vagueries of polling and the unpredictability of the next year and a half, Biden needs to gain 8% in the polls to have them predict victory. And for the ineveitable retort that polls are inaccutate etc. my response is less inaccurate than the predictions of partisans who 95% of the time predict their guy will win.,
    Now most presidents saw a dip in approvals at the 2 year mark but at the current 2.5 mark, since Truman, the only presidents with lower approvals than Biden has now were Trump and, surprise, Reagan. Now Reagans approvals went consistently up in his last year and a half, and Trump went on to lose.
    So my druthers would be another candidate and also another VP, as Harris is likely no worse policy wise for this conservative D than a Booker or Warren, but her achilles heel imo is that she is unlikable.
    But this is spilt milk and the train has left the station and I will be campaigning for the old guy unless the snowball from Hades emerges from the Rs- maybe a TIm Scott, or Larry Hogan is resurrected, but we need neither Trump or the other front runner, to further divide the country and increase the gdh, gross domestic hatred.

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