The nation’s oldest president is trying to dispel concerns that he’s too old for a second term by focusing voters on his wisdom.
At 80, President Biden hopes to recast his age as a strength rather than a weakness. He argues that his age given him the knowledge and experience to warrant a second term. His allies also have started citing the octogenarian’s wisdom as an asset and a campaign talking point.
But strategists on both sides of the aisle say Mr. Biden is making his experience the centerpiece of his reelection argument to distract from what others his age would call “senior moments” and from his spotty record on the economy and global affairs.
Mr. Biden would be 86 if he successfully completes a second term. The president’s age is a big reason that a majority of voters said they don’t want him to run for reelection, according to an NBC News poll released last month. The poll found 70% of adults said Mr. Biden should not run again, with 69% of them citing age as the reason.
It appears as if Mr. Biden is confronting the issue head-on by trying to reassure voters that his age has armed him with the life experience necessary to be president. But he told campaign donors in New York last week that seeking reelection was not an “automatic” decision, largely because of his age.
“I thought to myself, you know, four more years, I mean, six more years is — is a long time,” Mr. Biden said. “It’s a legitimate thing to raise the question of age. And I think it’s totally legitimate. I hope what I’ve been able to bring to this job and will continue to bring is a little bit of wisdom.”
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During an interview with MSNBC earlier this month, Mr. Biden said, “I have acquired a hell of a lot of wisdom. I know more than anyone who has ever run for office, and I think I have proven myself to be honorable and also effective.”
Strategists see Mr. Biden’s newfound emphasis on his age differently. They say it’s an attempt by the president to deflect attention from his uneven first term.
Veteran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf said the strategy is the best card in the Biden campaign’s deck, given his oldest-ever status.
“This is a question of what is believed to do two things at once: neutralize the age argument and reduce the negatives about performance,” he said.
Sources in Mr. Biden’s campaign say the strategy underscores the president’s leadership skills and ability to get things done. They point to his sweeping legislative victories, including the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, hundreds of billions in funding to overhaul infrastructure, a law aimed at spurring computer chip production, and his massive health care, climate, and tax agenda, which lowered prescription drug costs.
But there are also significant legislative promises that Mr. Biden has failed to fulfill. He has been unable to pass an assault weapons ban, or bills to increase police accountability, overhaul immigration, and implement universal preschool and paid sick leave for workers.
When asked about Mr. Biden’s legislative losses, the campaign sources said his successes are nearly unprecedented, and that he can get his other agenda items passed if voters give him a second term.
Opponents view that strategy as a tough sell.
“What they are trying to do with the experience angle is have Biden come across as a statesman who gets things done. I don’t know how they do that because when Democrats had the House and Senate he barely got anything passed,” said Republican strategist Jimmy Keady. “The best they’ve got is [that] Biden has been in office for a long time.”
Mr. Biden’s win-loss record on foreign and domestic issues is also mixed.
Since he has taken office, more than 12 million jobs have been created as America recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The job surge has pushed unemployment near its lowest level in nearly 50 years.
But inflation has soared under Mr. Biden, reaching its highest level since the 1980s last summer. The rising cost of consumer goods such as gasoline and groceries have chipped away at some of the salary gains made by workers.
Inflation eased a bit in March as gas prices dropped from record levels last summer, but the price of services continued to climb, keeping overall inflation stubbornly high. Still, inflation has fallen from 9% last year to 4% in March.
A spate of high-profile bank failures — including the second and third-largest collapses in U.S. history — occurred earlier this year, raising alarms about the nation’s economic stability.
All of that has left Americans edgy about their finances, with economists warning that a recession is still possible.
Those fears have been heightened as American hurdles toward potentially defaulting on its bills for the first time in U.S. history if Mr. Biden is unable to reach a deal with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, to raise the debt ceiling. Failure to raise the debt limit could create economic chaos in the U.S. and across the globe. However, both men said this week that a deal to avert default is near.
In the international arena, Mr. Biden has repaired international relationships that had become tense under President Trump. He’s also managed to keep an international coalition from wavering in its support for Ukraine as it fights off Russian invaders.
Yet Mr. Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021 was a debacle that left the brutal Taliban regime in control of the country and provided images of fleeing Afghans clinging to American planes as they left the region. The chaos culminated with a suicide bomber killing 13 American troops and 170 civilians.
Mr. Biden’s approval rating plummeted after the Afghanistan withdrawal and has yet to recover. Some critics say the fiasco undermined Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign pledge to restore competency to the White House.
“Experience is the only thing Biden can run on that makes any sense. He can’t run on the economy or his foreign policy positions, which have been failures by every metric,” said Mr. Keady, the Republican strategist.
Mr. Sheinkopf said pitching Mr. Biden’s experience has the best chance of success if Mr. Trump, who will turn 77 next month, is the GOP nominee in 2024. He said it would be more effective because it gives Mr. Biden an avenue to attack his predecessors’ record in the Oval Office, which he can’t do with other Republican candidates such as former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who plans to formally announce his candidacy next week.
“If Trump is the Republican nominee, this slogan and advertising flowing from it will have a long life,” Mr. Sheinkopf said.
Mr. Biden first floated the “wisdom” argument last month while addressing the Irish parliament in Dublin.
“The only thing I bring to this career after my age — as you can see how old I am — is a little bit of wisdom,” he said, adding that he’s at the end of his career.
Mike Donilon, an administration strategist, underscored the talking point in a Vanity Fair interview published last week.
“One of the benefits of him in this office is the kind of wisdom, experience, and perspective that he brings to bear on these problems,” he told the magazine. “It matters. But it tends to be dismissed.”
It remains to be seen whether the wisdom argument can overcome a spate of miscues by the president at public appearances. In a span of five public appearances earlier this month, he struggled in four of them — including forgetting answers, stumbling over sentences, and butchering names.
The campaign is confident voters will overlook those gaffes and focus on his legislative accomplishments, but strategists say that’s not going to be enough.
“I think it is going to take him delivering some really good addresses. The problem is people go on Twitter and replay his mistakes. He clearly has issues with speeches and it’s a larger problem they have to tackle,” Mr. Keady said.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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