Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA via AP Images
President Joe Biden speaks at the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., February 12, 2024.
The press has belatedly acknowledged that the special counsel’s report on President Biden’s alleged memory lapses was a crude hit job. But the intended damage has been done.
Media attention is now obsessed with Biden’s age and cognitive capacity. That in turn revs up public concerns. Meanwhile, Biden’s handlers try to keep him out of spontaneous settings where he might commit one of his trademark gaffes.
Though Biden is prone to slips of the tongue, on the whole he is all there mentally and fully involved in very challenging policy dilemmas. One can fault him for specific policy choices, most notably his blank check to Netanyahu, but that is a separate issue. It has everything to do with a long-standing bias in America’s Mideast policy and nothing to do with presidential comprehension.
The problem is that the relentless drip-drip of stories that Biden is too old for the job reinforces public perceptions and concerns. While Biden can’t change his age or his appearance, there are some things he can do. He can sit for extended one-on-one televised conversations with serious journalists and demonstrate his grasp of complex public issues. He can take more risks than his handlers want in spontaneous public events.
If this strategy works, the Biden-is-too-old issue will start to fade. If it doesn’t work and he can’t handle these formats, that is useful data and Democratic leaders will get more serious about asking Biden to step aside.
In the meantime, Biden has one not-so-secret weapon—Donald Trump. Unlike Biden’s occasional slips, Trump’s off-the-cuff lunacy demonstrates either extreme recklessness or advancing dementia or both. The latest example is his comment about NATO at a political rally on Saturday in South Carolina.
Trump complained about “delinquent” payments by some NATO countries and recounted a supposed past conversation with the head of “a big country” about an attack by Russia on such countries. “No, I would not protect you. In fact I would encourage them [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay,” Trump said he told the leader.
Biden, several leading Republicans, and key Europeans all expressed outrage. There will be more comments like these, in which Trump comes across as unhinged. And the more that the election becomes a one-on-one comparison, the more the contrast will favor Biden.
Let’s see: momentarily mixing up Mexico and Egypt. Or deliberately and willfully abandoning Europe to Putin. Which one is cognitively impaired?
Needless to say, I wish Biden (or some other Democratic incumbent running for re-election) were 61 rather than 81. But put Biden up directly against Trump and the contrast isn’t even close.
