Most Americans don’t want them to run. According to a recent poll out last week, most American voters do not want President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump to make 2024 presidential bids.
The NBC News poll found that 60% of Americans think Trump, 76, should not mount a third run for president, including about a third of Republicans. And 70% of Americans think Biden shouldn’t seek a second term — including 51% of Democrats. In Biden’s case, half said his age was a “major reason” for that opinion. Biden, 80, is America’s oldest president and would be 86 by the end of a second term.
Meanwhile, a Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that a 38% plurality of respondents said they felt exhausted over the possibility of a Biden-Trump rematch. I’m not tired. I am hankering for an epic rematch. Think Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier. Godzilla versus Mothra. Julius Caesar versus Charlemagne. Bob Fioretti versus Toni Preckwinkle. (Well, that one would not be so epic.) A Biden-Trump rematch would be the fight of all time.
Like it or not, Biden and Trump possess universal experience, name recognition and brands. Trump will have a posse of younger opponents in the 2024 Republican primaries. Among them, plenty of imitations, but no duplications. There is only one Donald Trump. His fierce and unwavering base will demand the real thing, warts and all.
On the Democratic side, Biden’s “soft launch” presidential announcement has virtually cleared the field. Now that Biden is officially in, few establishment Democrats are likely to jump into the 2024 presidential fray. Among Democrats, there is some ambivalence about Biden, and his age. Take Jenipher Lagana. She likes Biden, as she told The Associated Press in a recent interview. She called him an “interesting man” who has had an “incredible political career.” Lagana, 59, is retired and living in California. She praised Biden for providing a “breath of fresh air,” the AP quoted her as saying. She approves of his performance as president.
Yet, “my problem with him running in 2024 is that he’s just so old,” Lagana added. “I would love to see somebody younger, like (Transportation Secretary Pete) Buttigieg or (California Gov. Gavin) Newsom, be able to get in there and handle things maybe a little differently just because they’re a younger person.”
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She echoes other Democrats who yearn for a next-generation politician to lead their party and nation. For months, a crowd of wannabes has been angling to run, had Biden opted out. But he did not, and many Democrats believe Biden is the only politician who can best Trump in 2024. The abject fear of a Trump return to the White House will overwhelm all other considerations. They will be all-in for Biden, age be damned. But for the Democratic Party, nominating Biden is a dangerous place to be.
The extreme rigors of the job take a toll on every commander in chief. For America’s oldest president, that toll could overtake the clock. To get reelected, Biden must be ever visible and vigorous on the campaign trail, while running a world that faces countless perils. And if reelected, Biden must run that world for another four years.
Trump will gleefully resurrect his famous “Sleepy Joe” moniker as he takes on his archrival. Biden’s age will be an ever-present and ominous presence on the campaign trail. Every Biden garble, blink, tremor and wobble will be scrutinized and highlighted by the media and the GOP. Last Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley named the elephant in the room. Biden is likely to die with the next five years, the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations declared in an interview on Fox News.
“He announced that he’s running again in 2024, and I think that we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for Joe Biden, you really are counting on a President Harris, because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not something that I think is likely,” Haley declared.
Vice President Kamala Harris may be standing by, but her popularity polls suggest voters may not view her as Oval Office-ready.
Democrats are stuck with Biden for 2024. Age is much more than a number.
Laura Washington is a political commentator and longtime Chicago journalist. Her columns appear in the Tribune each Monday. Write to her at [email protected].
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