Biden’s age is a distraction from the real election issue: the damage Trump will do

Let’s face it. Joe Biden’s age isn’t an asset to his re-election campaign. He’s 80 years old, making him the oldest president ever, and he would certainly be pushing the record even further in a second term.

But the breathless coverage of Biden’s age and the relentless obsession about it is taking on the flavor of some of the mainstream media’s worst habits. In an effort to whip up the horserace narrative that it likes, reporters are talking about Biden’s age as if he’s one step from the dementia unit at the local assisted living facility.

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“As Democratic Jitters Grow, Biden Campaign Tries to Showcase His Vigor,” The New York Times declared in one headline. “Biden faces negative job ratings and concerns about his age,” a CNN headline announced. “Poll: Age haunts Biden,” said Axios.

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Of course, part of the reason why Biden is getting so much attention to his age is because the press is so focused on it. Not mentioned in the stories is that there’s not any evidence of any cognitive decline or physical problems that hinder Biden from doing his job. The “campaign” cited by the Times included a trip to Vietnam, where Biden pulled an all-nighter that would have been hard on someone half his age.

It’s not as if Biden doesn’t show his age. He does. He walks slowly and he doesn’t seem to respond all that quickly. But Biden was never exactly Groucho Marx on the campaign trail, ready with the snappy quip. He’s never been a terrific speaker and no one ever described him as a particularly high-energy politician.

But the narrative is especially convenient for Republicans, who need to take the focus away from Donald Trump’s age. Trump is 77 and gives every indication of lying about his health. For his Georgia indictment, he supplied his own height and weight, which he said were 6′ 3″ and 215 lbs. For the record, his driver’s license has him at 6′ 2″ and he was 30 pounds heavier at his last White House physical.

Indeed, Trump is fueling the narrative that Biden is senile, to the point that he even deserves that rarest of Trump qualities, sympathy. Trump told Sean Hannity that he shouldn’t joke about Biden because “it’s a serious issue.”

Meanwhile, Trump has never been the sharpest knife in the drawer, as anyone who has ever listened to his rambling stream-of-consciousness musings can verify. During his presidency, there were serious analyses about whether Trump’s problems were attributable to mental health disorders or cognitive decline. Neither is a quality you’d want in the Commander-in-Chief.

It’s not as if the age of both candidates isn’t a real concern. But once again, the media focus is on exactly the wrong thing. The issue isn’t the candidate’s age. It’s the candidate’s policies. And one candidate once tried to thwart the peaceful transfer of power.

You’d kind of forget that in the coverage that’s playing out now. It’s as if this is just another election with two candidates representing two different perspectives. Instead, Trump represents a unique and proven threat to democracy and the Constitution. People have the right to support that, if they so choose. But let’s not pretend that there’s an equivalency between the candidates.

As for the Democrats and their jitters – it’s time to get over it. Biden is going to be the nominee, barring some unforeseen disaster. Some pundits are floating the idea that a credible candidate (i.e., not RFK Jr.) challenging Biden in the Democratic primaries would be a good thing. It would not. It would divide the party and weaken the eventual winner, who would still be Biden.

The stakes in 2024 are incredibly high. No candidate is ever going to be the perfect candidate. But the Democratic agenda, which includes protecting and advancing LGBTQ+ rights, will advance no matter who the nominee is. On the other hand, if Trump is elected, the damage to the country and to the LGBTQ+ community will be incalculable.

Meanwhile, most of the mainstream media pretends that political reporting never changed. They don’t have Hillary Clinton’s emails to obsess over this time out, so now it’s Biden’s age.