Lucian K. Truscott IV used that as the headline for a recent Substack post. It read like a bumper strip. He wrote in support of Biden.
They’re both old. Don’t focus on their gaffes or their age. It doesn’t matter that Donald Trump confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, or that Joe Biden mistook the president of Egypt for the president of Mexico. . . . What does have bearing, however, is what each man says about the intentions and plans he has if either of them wins the office of president in November of this year.
"It's important." The phrase has a history, going back to the Louisiana campaign for governor in 1991.
Democrat Edwin Edwards was a candidate to return to office as governor of Louisiana. He was notorious for his corruption. He later served time in federal prison for bribery, extortion, and money laundering. He was "the crook." His opponent was Republican David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the KKK. Duke had left the KKK, but he retained connections to White supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations. Louisiana resident Kirby Newburger had a printer make 250 of these bumper strips as a lighthearted goof. They caught on, and similar ones soon appeared on thousands of vehicles.
Edwards won in a landslide.
There is a gathering storm that may come to nothing, or may totally upset the 2024 election. Recent polls show Biden losing to Trump. The polls are getting repeated mention in The New York Times and other places Democrats get news they trust. Some long-standing Democratic strategists are speaking out now, urging Biden to drop out.
Gavin Newsom is scrupulous in not running for president, but he is doing so conspicuously. "No. No, thanks. Not now. No, really," is an increasingly transparent way of saying "Yes."
But most Democrats are hunkering down and making the best of the situation. That means, like Truscott, that they openly acknowledge that there is a problem with Biden. They define that problem in the least dangerous and incapacitating way, as mere stuttering. Then they compare that minor defect to the alternative. It might work. Being a stutterer is better than being too old and feeble. It is better than being a lying, felonious rapist. Or a crook.
The question for the public is whether the problem with Biden is merely his stutter.
The 2024 is not about the reelection of Biden. It's about the defeat of his opponent.
Oh stop with the horse-race question that so one is sooooo concerned about. Joe Biden is old, to be sure. But so is Donald Trump, and he is showing repeated signs of mental instability and confusion. Instead of constantly asking "how old is too old" (or in addition to asking that question), everyone should also be asking:
• Can someone be too much of a rapist to qualify to serve?
• How much hush money can a person pay prostitutes before they are unqualified?
• How many classified documents can a person steal before they are unqualified?
• How much money can a president take from foreign nations while in office before he is unqualified to serve?
• How many secrets can a president sell to foreign nationals?
• How many police officers can a person be responsible for being killed?