With Biden's Official Campaign Launch, Choice Will Be Between ‘Competency’ and ‘Chaos’
Reelection bid will tackle age issue, backers say
President Biden officially launched his bid for reelection Tuesday, with the choice for the White House once again setting up as one between “not super exciting competency or chaos,” according to at least one political commentator.
And Biden's backers assured voters that the president — who would turn 86 years old at the end of a second term — will address his age as well as other issues.
Biden launched his campaign early Tuesday morning with a well-produced, compelling video — exactly four years to the day from when he announced his entry into the 2020 presidential sweepstakes.
Although the presidential field has not yet settled on the Republican side, Biden is likely to either face a direct rematch with political nemesis, Donald Trump, or a Trump-like candidate such as Florida Gov Ron DeSantis.
“And here is the wildest part on some level, elected Republicans know that what I’m saying is true. They know that their vision of America isn’t real, that most people do not want to live the way they want us to. You know how I know that you know what their tell is? They keep silencing dissent,” MSNBC host Joy Reid said on-camera Tuesday evening. “They keep making it harder and harder to vote and they keep gerrymandering their way to power. The question for voters in 2024, it seems to me, is: Do you want maybe not- super-exciting-competency or chaos? Choose your adventure.”
Former Democratic senator Claire McCaskill said much the same thing.
“Over 150 million people voted for president last time. So I think it’s easy to assume that what they’re peddling over there is what the majority of the Republican Party thinks,” she said. “There’s a whole lot of Republicans I know in Missouri — frankly, that voted for me back in the day — that are very uncomfortable with the fact that in Missouri the government is going to force a rape victim to give birth to the child of her rapist. They are very uncomfortable with banning books and defunding libraries. They are very uncomfortable with the gun slaughter going on.
“And I think that’s where Joe Biden wins in a binary choice between the extremists and somebody who wants to unite us and appeal to our better angels,” McCaskill added.
Biden's most prominent supporters — including long-time ally, Democratic Rep Jim Clyburn of South Carolina — assured voters that the president will deal effectively with the issue of his advanced age.
“I think there are two things, and I think you touched on it this morning. First of all, I think the President is going to have to deal with the whole issue of age. He is 80 years old. I might add I’m 82. I do believe that he is up to task, and that is something that we just cannot pretend is not on people’s minds,” said Clyburn, a member of the House Democratic leadership and a co-chair of Biden's reelection campaign. “So, I think he has to show the energy that he has been showing over the past several months and he has to continue to pursue an agenda that will, as he says, build this economy from the bottom up and from the middle out so that people can feel a part of this.
“You know, in politics, I think it’s one thing to tell people what you going to do, but people have to feel you. And I think that that’s Joe Biden’s long suit. I don’t think people pay enough attention to that,” Clyburn added. “Just to hear somebody is one thing, but when you get the feel that this person is feeling my pain, this person understands what I’m going through, that is what makes the difference and that’s why people keep underestimating him. You can’t see feel. You just got to feel it.”
Those who are running Biden's reelection campaign aren't as fixated on Biden's age so much as other issues, according to CNN host Abby Phillip.
“I mean, regardless how old you are, that is a fact of the job. So, yeah. But, I mean, it is an issue for this president. I don’t think, though, that — I think it’s something the media loses a lot of sleep over — and, obviously, the poll numbers suggest that voters care about it to some extent. Honestly, when you talk to people around Biden, they are not fixated on that,” Phillip said. “It’s probably not viewed, you know, in the top five of the biggest challenges that they face. I mean, there are some bigger kind of almost existential ones, like, for example: What’s going to happen to the economy between now and next November?
“So they feel like they have bigger problems to face and that this is an ongoing issue for them, that they think will not be as important to voters at the end of the day once they are faced with a clear choice,” she added.
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