The New York Times and the Washington Post published op-eds on Wednesday labeling 80-year-old President Joe Biden as too old to run for re-election in 2024.
It comes as Biden faces an impeachment inquiry and recent polls show most consider the president too old to serve again.
Ross Douthat, a conservative opinion writer for the liberal Timeswrote a piece titled “2024’s Field of Nightmares,” a reference to the 1989 film Field of Dreams.
He said while his concerns about Biden boil down to mundane political disagreements during his first term, Democrats are playing with fire by renominating the oldest president in American history.
The two risks that Biden will be back in the race, according to Douthat: “the high stakes of the next election, in which a health crisis or simply more derailments could be the thing that puts Trump back in the White House, and the various but also substantial interests for another term of four years.’
The New York Times and the Washington Post published op-eds on Wednesday calling 80-year-old President Joe Biden too old to run for re-election in 2024
While Douthat argued that similar to Ronald Reagan’s second term — which has long been said to be served with the president in decline — Biden could “limp to another victory,” he sees the current political era as telling.
He likened it to liberals praying that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg could live long enough to see a Democrat replace her, only to see her die weeks before the election, while Trump could appoint another Supreme Court justice appoint.
‘TThe Trump era has been one of those periods in which providence or fate takes revenge on hubris more quickly than usual – in which the long-standing freedom that American parties and leaders have enjoyed, by virtue of our power and superiority, to work around our weak spots to skate and the number of mistakes has been significantly reduced,” he said.
David Ignatius wrote a similar column in Jeff Bezos magazine WashingtonPost with a more direct headline: “President Biden should not return to power in 2024.”
Ignatius largely praises Biden’s first years as president, claiming the Democrat has “ruled from the center” and done a good job on foreign policy by supporting Ukraine.
However, he says that not only Biden, but also Vice President Kamala Harris, should avoid a run for office in 2024.
‘It’s painful to say that, given my admiration for much of what they have achieved. But if he and Harris campaign together in 2024, I think Biden risks undoing his greatest achievement — stopping Trump.”
He cited disastrous polling for Biden in terms of approval rating and public opinion of his age.
The op-eds come as Biden faces an impeachment inquiry and recent polls show most consider the president too old to serve again.
A Washington Post columnist says that not only Biden but also Vice President Kamala Harris should avoid running for office in 2024.
Columnist David Ignatius suggested US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo as Harris’ replacement
For Harris, he mentioned, “the simple fact is that she has failed to gain traction in the country or even within her own party.”
He even suggested that Biden replace Harris on the ticket with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass or Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
“Right now, there is no clear alternative to Biden – no glaringly obvious replacement waiting in the wings. That could be the deciding factor for Biden, that there apparently is no one else. But perhaps he will trust that democracy will discover new leadership ‘in the arena’.
Although 80-year-old Biden is only three years older than 77-year-old Donald Trump, there is a 26 percent margin between those who think Biden is too old and those who think the ex-president is too old to serve another term to sit.
A new poll from the Wall Street Journal The report, taken from Aug. 24 to 30 and released Monday, shows that only 36 percent of 1,500 voters surveyed think Biden is mentally fit for office, while 46 percent think Trump is mentally fit for the job.
The latest shows that 75 percent of voters think Biden is too old, compared to only 47 percent who think the same about Trump.
There is a 26 percent margin between those who think President Joe Biden, 80, is too old to serve a second term, and those who think Republican front-runner and former President Donald Trump, 77, will be too old in 2024 old for another shot at the presidency.
As many as two-thirds of the president’s own party think he is too old, even if he is running a re-election campaign in 2024
Those who think Biden is too old include as many as two-thirds of Democrats.
Author Franklin Foer, who wrote a biography of Biden’s first two years as president, said Sunday that he would not be “totally shocked” if the president dropped out of the race before the end of the year.
When NBC Meet the Press host Chuck Todd asked Sunday how he would respond if Biden decided not to complete his 2024 bid, Foer said, “It would be a surprise to me. But it wouldn’t be a total surprise.’
The author, who had “unparalleled access” to Biden and his inner circle, noted, according to publisher Penguin Random House, that “one of the chief insecurities” of the president “is that he doesn’t want to be seen as stupid.”
Biden, 80, announced his bid for a second term with Vice President Kamala Harris in late April — but questions have been raised over the past year about whether the president is too old or unfit to serve four more years.
Only 40 percent of respondents in the WSJ survey say Biden has a strong performance record. But 51 percent say the same about Trump’s first term.
Infrastructure is the only policy area where American voters approve of Biden’s job performance. Meanwhile, their disapproval outweighs approval in areas such as the economy, inflation and cost of living, border security, China and the war in Ukraine.
Age has become a central issue in the 2024 presidential race, with candidate Nikki Haley suggesting earlier this year that there should be an age limit on those who can run for the White House. She said 75 would be a good limit.