July 17, 2024 - 11:30am
Milwaukee
The most powerful argument against Joe Biden is so obvious that even his friends are making it. His enemies are not.
Here at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, party leaders are conspicuously focused on just about everything except the President’s age. There’s plenty of discussion around “Biden migrant crime” and “Bidenflation”. Yet, at a moment when the whole country is suddenly focused on Biden’s frailty, Republicans on stage are rarely invoking his biggest vulnerability.
Before the debate in late June, it’s easy to imagine “Sleepy Joe” serving as the week’s theme. After Biden delivered the worst performance in modern presidential debate history, Chuck Todd described him on NBC News as looking “like the caricature that conservative media has been painting”.
It was never a caricature, of course, as George Clooney discovered when he came face-to-face with Biden just a few weeks ago. He admitted as much in the pages of the New York Times, joining a sizeable group of Biden-friendly Democrats so bothered by the President’s age they’re openly begging him to step down from the ticket. What’s more, they’re withholding donations.
Now, Republicans who begged the press for years to pay attention — with the eyes of the world upon them and the country awakened to the severity of the issue — are focused elsewhere. None of this is to say the issue is totally absent. Nikki Haley made a point to argue in her address that “a vote for Joe Biden is a vote for President Kamala Harris,” adding, “After seeing the debate, everyone knows it’s true.”
Governor Ron DeSantis, speaking after Haley, quipped about a “Weekend At Bernie’s president” and argued that Biden is merely a “figurehead”. The line received a huge response. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Jill Biden drags the President to “Bring Your Husband To Work Day”.
But Republicans want to run against Joe Biden; they would prefer that Clooney not get his way. Changing the candidate would demand a changed campaign. This puts strategists between a rock and a hard place: wield your best argument or draw more attention to the efforts that might replace a weak opponent?
Asked if that explains the difference, one veteran GOP communicator told me that Republicans want to “let the wildfire burn on its own”, pointing to Trump’s relative silence after he bested Biden in the debate. Democrats, the source claimed, are “like the Soviets in Afghanistan”, left with no good answers so Republicans should “leave the ball in Biden’s court”. Besides, they added, conventions are rare opportunities for parties to focus on policy distinctions.
Another senior GOP communications source said the strategy was “bigger” than keeping Biden in the race. Asked about the President’s age, the source said what “shook it up more” than the debate was the tragedy on Saturday. “It’s us versus them and everyone knows Biden can’t do this,” they explained.
Whatever the reason, there’s a certain irony in the split screen: as Democrats are finally panicking over the power of a years-long Republican argument, the GOP is moving on.
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SubscribeWhy focus on an issue which the Democrats can resolve, rather than on the policies which any Democrat administration will continue to impose, regardless of candidate? The Democrats are banking on repeating their trick of 2020: keeping a weak candidate under wraps and away from public scrutiny for as long as possible, and hoping that opposition to Trump will be enough to fire up the base. A relief bounce if Biden drops out shouldn’t distract from what another Democrat victory would mean.
I doubt there are many American voters who are unaware of the frailty of Biden. Why bother focusing on this?
To make the people who still plan to vote for him aware of their poor decision-making abilities.
It wouldn’t.
Biden is doing his very best to keep himself in the public eye.
If you are facing a candidate who squints at a teleprompter and says things will increase by no more than 55 dollars, instead of 5%, why not just keep letting that happen?
Is Biden just too vain to wear glasses?
He squints into the teleprompter, and now he can’t tell ‘%’ and ‘5’ apart.
Just get some glasses, you old fool!
Oh, that’s a new one…
More to the point, how did he not know that it was 5%? Do his handlers not tell him what he is supposed to say beforehand?
Emily, it’s not about his age. It’s about his obvious mental decline and inability to communicate a coherent thought.
No one talks about Kamala’s age when she tosses a huge word salad.
They will go back to commenting on his age and infirmity when he has been nominated at the Convention and it is clear that he is not going to stand down.
Republican strategy on Biden’s age. Never prevent your enemy from making a mistake.
Given Trump’s age and fanatical enemies with guns, we may well see Vance as president in less than 4 years.
The appointment of a young, vigorous Vance—roughly the same age as long-ago Senator John F. Kennedy—itself draws attention to Biden’s decrepitude, silently and very effectively.
Generally speaking, you don’t try to re-contest victories.
Grocery and gas prices, crime rates, border chaos, and countless asinine policies are more than enough.
Presidents generally are figureheads, or at the very least rely heavily on key advisors. No one thinks Biden (or Trump, for that matter) stays up late at night studying econometrics.