I was wrong. I recently noted that writing about the Middle East provokes the most amount of mail. Scratch that. It’s writing about Joe Biden and his age, which I addressed two issues in a row.
Nancy Bruski represented one (very) strong school of thought:
I’ve been a longtime admirer of yours and enjoy my subscription to Our Land
, but I was quite disturbed to see you, even this week, harping on the dangers of Biden’s advanced age and wondering how and whether it might still be possible to get him off the Dem ticket. Have you lost your mind? And just who would replace him? As you mentioned, Kamala Harris should be the rightful person to become the next candidate of the Democratic party, since she is V.P. Yet for some mysterious reasons, many Dems don’t like her. (Misogyny? Racism? What?) The only result of pushing Biden off as a candidate would be a bloodbath that would surely result in a Trump victory.
I’m actually pretty shocked that a sophisticated guy such as yourself can’t see that even talking about wishing one could get Biden off the ticket is a very bad idea at this point. The time for that passed ages ago. And Biden is actually pretty sharp in his thinking, if not always his wordsmithing. And his performance in office has been mostly stellar.
I hope you will let go of this hand wringing over his age and focus on how Biden is infinitely better than the alternative! The more people with followings who obsess about his age, the worse things will get. Trump can’t even get out a sentence that makes sense and is planning to destroy NATO and would give Poland to Putin, and you’re still worrying about Biden’s age? Come on, now! So please stop with this already, and as my mother used to say, don’t get your kishkes in an uproar over the craziness about Biden’s age! Besides, 81 is the new 70!
First, I would be delighted if 81 is the new 70. My back tells me otherwise. And in my defense, I was not calling for kicking Biden to the curb. I was recognizing that for some voters his age is indeed an issue, and that should not be ignored. I also speculated about what could happen should either he choose to bow out or Democrats lean on him to do so. At the same time, I have pounded the conventional media for going nuts over this, while letting Trump slide for so much. All in all, I think that’s a balanced approach. But, of course, I would.
Dan Chabot was more favorable:
I think you hit on the required approach: “Biden needs to do what he can to address the matter.” Many of his surrogates talk about how sharp he is in meetings, etc. He needs to get out and show it. The Hur report didn’t really say anything people weren’t already thinking.
Nicholas Sinisi emailed:
How culpable do you feel Attorney General Garland is in all of this? He put a Trump-appointed special prosecutor in charge of the Biden documents case, and Robert Hur obviously felt it necessary to put a partisan tone on the final report. Maybe Garland should have insisted on vetting (editing?) Hur’s report before it landed.
As far as the media goes, it seems like they constantly bend over backwards to find and exploit Biden’s flaws so that they don’t appear biased against a candidate who faces an unprecedented number of criminal counts. This “horserace” mentality, which is good for TV ratings and sells newspapers, is destructive to the democratic process. Biden is old. He can’t do anything about that. But the MSM is so cowed by the MAGA media and fearful of blowback that they knuckle under. They need to stop trying to “even the score.”
It does seem to me that Garland doesn’t have a good sense of how MAGA politics works these days, and he assumed too much good faith in handing this investigation to a Trump appointee—especially after the disaster with special counsel John Durham. As for the media, I pointed out in my most recent outing on this front that it often fails in one of its most important missions: assigning the appropriate priority to stories.
Gary Michael shared this:
Everyone is missing the point. Vice President Kamala Harris is less popular than Biden. She has never had a large following. The fact that she is next in line makes Biden’s age an important issue. He needs a new more likable running mate to allow people to get past the age issue.
Were Biden to bounce Harris, that would lead to tremendous conflict within the Democratic coalition, with Black voters (particularly Black women) outraged. Democrats probably cannot win without them.
Diane Wagner had a similar thought to Gary’s:
Biden remains the candidate for president. Gavin Newsom replaces Kamala Harris as vice president. Kamala replaces Merrick Garland as attorney general. Garland retires to a tortoise farm. This would ease voters’ anxiety. It would also get rid of Garland, who has made a significant contribution to our current mess. What do you think? P.S. I am halfway through your book
American Psychosis.
I compliment you on your taste in books…I still think a move like this would be widely seen as shunting Harris aside to make room for a white guy. I’ve heard others suggest she should be appointed to the Supreme Court—but that would require a vacancy.
Doug Greenberg hopes Biden will say goodbye:
The Democrats appear, as usual, to be led by what some of us call “stupid smart people,” unable to transcend their own righteous and sometimes arrogant assumptions. In 2016, a lot of people could see well in advance of election day that Hillary Clinton was a flawed, even disastrous candidate. Part of this was not her fault, as the right-wing media had been pounding her for decades, and some (not all) of their attacks were mostly baseless. But in elections, perceptions are reality. Repeated declarations by Democratic leaders that “the attacks are unfair” did nothing to change people’s perceptions. So now in 2024, here we go again. Some Democratic leaders bleat that attacking Joe Biden because of his age is “ageist” and “unfair.” Well, this is true, but no matter how many times this judgment is repeated, it will not move the electoral needle. Biden has become a fatally flawed candidate, and the stakes in 2024 are too high to simply allow him to run and lose, and then afterward wag fingers about “ageism.”
In late March 1968, Lyndon Johnson declared he would not seek the nomination of his party. He knew his presence in the race would be fatally inflammatory and divisive. The Democrats lost anyway, but Humphrey made it close. Biden should follow Johnson’s example. For the good of the nation, it is best that he withdraws from the race in favor of a candidate that has a better chance of winning this all-important election.
So to whom do the Democrats turn? One alternative would be Gavin Newsom, but with his slick, calculating demeanor and his California political base he would not be a winner nationally. As for Kamala Harris, I am a Bay Area resident who has followed her career from its early days, and I am not a fan. But nationally, it’s really a case of “here we go again.” Yup, she has been tarnished fatally by the vicious worlds of punditry and negative social media memes. In my opinion, the best candidate for the Democrats would be Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. She is tough, smart, has no serious baggage (that I know of), and she has shown herself to be an astute and appealing politician. She could win.
As I note above, any plan that involves dumping Harris will create problems. But I am curious about how Whitmer would perform on the national stage—if not this year, then perhaps soon.
Jo Kooser had a question:
Why does not even one news outlet publicize the very relevant fact that Trump’s father was diagnosed at 70 with Alzheimer’s disease, which, in many cases, is inherited?
Peter Greenwald shared this:
In March 2020, while campaigning for presidential nomination, Joe Biden said, “I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else.” Do you think when he said that he intended to be a one-term president, but now he is so impressed with his position as president that he’s changed his mind?
I wish I could offer insight into his thinking. But your guess is as good as mine. As Biden likes to note, he did beat Trump once, and perhaps he truly believes that’s the best qualification.