The St. Louis Postdispatch on how knocks on Biden’s age may be unfair, but perception is reality in politics:
As exonerations go, it was the worst kind imaginable.
It might be stretching things, but only a little, to suggest that President Joe Biden would have been politically better off had the recent Department of Justice report concluded that he was legally culpable for mishandling classified documents than to let him off the hook with the explanation that he is a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Then there was the foreheadslap moment during Biden’s angry press conference response, in which he appeared to reassign the president of Egypt to Mexico.
Sigh. In fairness, Biden was a gaffe geyser even in his much younger days. And his anger was richly warranted at special counsel Robert Kyoung Hur’s unnecessary-verging-on-cruel reference in the report to the death of his son Beau Biden ....
Because of the glaring, obvious danger to democracy that a second Donald Trump presidency presents, some have implored Biden to step aside for a younger, more electable Democrat. But the practical reality is that both the electoral calendar and the lack of a clear Biden successor would make such horse-changing exceedingly difficult now, even if Biden agreed to it . ...
It’s true that, at 81, Biden is only marginally older than the 77-year-old Trump. In terms of “senior moments,” Trump’s recent comment confusing GOP primary opponent Nikki Haley with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is just one of many examples of his own demonstrable mental issues.
And that’s before even getting into Trump’s apparent criminality on multiple fronts, his shameless and persistent lying and his clearly expressed desire to install himself as an autocratic dictator unconstrained by constitutional niceties.
Biden is, as Hur’s backhanded exoneration notes, “well-meaning.” To which we would add, decent, intelligent, responsible and joyously normal in ways his dangerously abnormal predecessor has never been . ...
Polls show even majorities of Biden’s own supporters perceive him as being too old for the job. The numbers are worst among young voters who, by themselves, could unintentionally usher in a Trumpian dystopia merely by staying home in frustration on Election Day.
That can’t be allowed to happen. Biden’s belief that he has done a good job and deserves another term is understandable. But, again, that’s irrelevant. And it’s looking more like self-destructive hubris every day.
Biden’s spirited rebuttal during Thursday’s press conference presented both justified outrage at the ageist commentary in the Justice Department report — and cringe-worthy moments that seemed to confirm that commentary. There are many more of these white-knuckle press conferences ahead for Democrats if they don’t get their act together and at least consider coming up with a candidate more clearly equipped to turn back the Trumpian threat facing democracy.