Two Old Men Decided to Run for President but the Narrative was Only One was an Old Man

American Eclectic posts articles twice a month, on the 1st and 15th. This is the second year of publication; previously published articles can be found on my site.

October 1, 2023

Donald Trump is old and not just in years.  He is obese, enjoys fast food and makes believe riding around in a golf cart is exercise.  In June, Joe Biden stumbled on a sandbag while giving out diplomas at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.  In June 2020, while President, Trump had difficulty walking down a ramp while at West Point to deliver a commencement speech.  Naturally, Trump lashed out at media coverage of the incident:

The ramp that I descended after my West Point commencement speech was very long and steep.  [It] had no handrail and, most importantly, was very slippery. The last thing I was going to do is ‘fall’ for the Fake News to have fun with. Final ten feet I ran down to level ground. Momentum!

In August 2019, on a stop in Iowa while on the campaign trail heading during the 2020 Presidential campaign, Biden stumbled over words saying, “We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids.”  Biden went on to correct himself, but Trump saw an opening to question Biden’s remarks as indicting he was too old to be president.  Interesting, there were also Democrats that started raising the issue of Biden’s mental fitness.  This raises the issue of whether only focusing on Biden’s age as we head toward the 2024 election, has become a pattern that emerged from the lead-up to the 2020 election. I guess ignoring or rationalizing Trump saying Biden could lead us into “World War Two,” (which ended in 1945) and confusing who he ran against him and who he beat for the Presidency in 2016 (he said Barack Obama, but it was Hillary Clinton) do not count. In August 2016, Trump believed a video he saw that, according to him, showed $400 million in cash being delivered to Iran, he cited the $400 million cash payment story at several campaign rallies.  As he put it:

I woke up yesterday and I saw $400 million, different currencies — they probably don’t want our currency — different currencies, $400 million being flown to Iran. I mean folks, what’s going on here? What’s going on? What is going on? You see it, you don’t believe. Four hundred million in cash being flown in an airplane to Iran.

It was nice of Trump to correct himself, eventually realizing the video was not what he thought it was, tweeting, “The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!”  A good commentary on this incident was tweeted by someone, “As a general principle, anybody who gets up in public & repeatedly talks about imaginary videos in far away countries needs help, not votes.” 

In October 2020, when Trump contacted the Covid virus, it was acknowledged that he received oxygen, which had been denied earlier.  The issue of Long Covid has emerged as more is learned about this virus.  A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publication of Long Covid states, “Long COVID can include a wide range of ongoing health problems; these conditions can last weeks, months, or years.”

Hillary Clinton decided to add to a narrative on Biden’s age, without in the same statement addressing Trump’s age-related issues: She has to think about how she says things in public. Clinton stated in May:

There was that heart-stopping moment when he [Biden] almost fell over coming down the stairs a day or two ago. Every time that happens, your heart is in your mouth because these things could be consequential. Is that a concern?

Dan Bongino, a conservative radio talker, so essentially a good Republican Party backer who will be there in Trump’s corner if he gets the Republican nomination to run again for President, made sure he played this to the hilt.  But Bongino had help from an NBC News poll a month before Clinton’s remarks that addressed Biden’s age as an issue of concern to voters.  The poll noted that 70 percent of those polled said Biden should not run again.

In a laughable way Trump took the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test which aims to show early signs of cognitive impairment and dementia. Trump bragged that doctors found it “amazing” he passed it. When being interviewed by Sean Hannity on Fox News, Hannity stated, “He didn’t get one wrong 30 out of 30. Wow!” Very odd that Trump bragged about his perfect 30 score as a way to show his intelligence or as Trump tweeted, “A few years ago I was the only one to agree to a mental acuity test, & ACED IT.” I liked that one question asked of a person taking the test is to look at a simple line-drawn cube and they are asked to draw it. The test also asks a person to identify an elephant. Sometimes a variation of this test asks a participant to draw a clock and insert hour and minute hands. Usually, this is a 10–12-minute test. The inventor of the test, a Canadian neurologist, stated, “It is supposed to be easy for someone who has no cognitive impairment.” No doubt if Biden carried on like Trump about this test and “aced it,” Hannity’s ridicule of Biden would have been on full display, and he would have raised Biden’s age.

Polls that only raise the issue of Biden’s age, even those run by respectable polling organizations, begin to look like push-polls where, essentially, the participants are being manipulated to see something a certain way.  This seems to take on all the characteristics of Clinton and her emails leading up to the 2016 Presidential election.  On Full Frontal, a showing starring Samantha Bee, Sarah Paulsen read Clinton emails shortly before the 2016 election.  What this showed was that many of Clinton’s emails were the stuff of the dull and ordinary.  Using the term “Clinton’s emails” created the impression that literally thousands of her emails were exposing national security secrets, well, on a par with Trump flouting hot secret documents to random guests at Mar-a-Lago.  As Paulson dramatically spoke, she quoted from several of the emails, one of which went, “Can you get me times for two TV shows: Parks and Recreation and The Good Wife.”   One gets the impression that saying the words “Clinton’s emails” meant that there was no reason to seriously dive into them to see what they covered. 

Jill Filipovic writing in the New York Times made a good point in an article titled, “The Men Who Cost Clinton the Election.”  Filipovic concluded that Clinton as the first woman running for the Presidency on a major political party ticket played a role in the election outcome:

The 2016 presidential race was so close that any of a half-dozen factors surely influenced the outcome: James Comey, racial politics, Clinton family baggage, the contentious Democratic primary, third-party spoilers, Russian interference, fake news. But when one of the best-qualified candidates for the presidency in American history and the first woman to get close to the Oval Office loses to an opponent who had not dedicated a nanosecond of his life to public service and ran a blatantly misogynist campaign, it’s hard to conclude that gender didn’t play a role.

The preoccupation with Clinton’s emails had an impact on the outcome of the 2016 election.  No doubt FBI Director James Comey’s decision to investigate the issue, shortly before the election and then just as quickly dropping it mattered, and added to the issue being a predominant issue through the campaign.  As one article stated, “With only two days until voting, it's more than likely that the dust kicked up by this story won't have fully settled by the time Americans head to the polls.”  Will Biden’s age, ignoring Trump’s age, take on the same level of awareness among voters.

In February 2020, Trump was descending the stairway on Air Force One and one site titled its essay, “Trump Has Trouble Walking Down Stairs, Appears To Be Dragging His Leg.”  I watched the video, and he looked fine descending the stairs.  This raises the issue of seeing-what-you-want-see.  We can be sure there will be a lot of that going on regarding Biden.  No doubt every conservative outfit in the country will be looking for anything that makes Biden look like he has some “hidden condition” that is not being revealed to the electorate. Psychologists address an issue called perceptual bias—see what you want to see. With the expectation that Fox News, OAN, and News Max are there to do their part to keep the focus on Biden’s age, I expect we will see a lot of perceptual bias going on. I am sure added to that will be the usual manufactured videos that will later be reported to be false, but which will be believed and have their intended effect at the time they are shown, and no doubt discussed as news on a variety of news shows: Statements after the fact that the videos were manufactured, will matter little.

An NBC News article had an odd way of addressing Biden, Trump, and the age issue by stating, “half of those who don’t want Biden, 80, to run say the president’s age is a ‘major’ reason why.  Trump is 76 years old.”  Biden’s age, again seen as an issue but not Trump’s age.  The two are 44 months apart in age which pretty much puts them on the same playing field—age wise.  A recent article on a site called Election Central, started off by stating, “Here are six options if Joe Biden succumbs to concerns over health or age.”  Health? Is there something we do not know about Biden’s health.  The author pretty much let the readers know he is not a supporter of the Democratic Party.  One of his six options was for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D. NY) to run for President.  As the author wrote, “Because, why not?  Democrats place little value on experience or competency and would prefer a candidate willing to push the left-wing envelope to the extreme.”  I guess he forgot about Trump’s experience heading into the 2016 election.  The Apprentice must have qualified Trump for higher office. As far as I can tell, all the articles on this site are by the same person.

An Associated Press (AP) article which addressed an AP-NORC poll, may have given a hint to why attention might be more focused on Biden’s age than the only slightly younger Trump. The article put in parenthesis adjectives that Americans saw Biden as “old” and “confused,” and Trump as “corrupt” and “dishonest.” Who wins the battle of the adjectives might matter to the outcome of next year’s election, if Trump is the Republican candidate. Which adjectives do Americans hate more in a President.

In the 2020 election, Biden received his biggest support among Gen Z voters (aged 18-24).  Figures showed that he received 11 percent more support among this age group than any other.  There is evidence, however, that among this age group they can be seen as “volatile” in how they vote.  As one study stated, “there is…evidence that more recent birth cohorts are less likely to identify with a political party than older generations.”  In addition, another study suggested that younger voters are likely to identify with younger politicians.  I am sure they do not see Trump as young, but if they only see Biden as old, some of that based on issued raised in this essay, will that reduce his support within this age group. A recent Institute of Politics poll at the Harvard Kennedy School did not look good for Biden: 59 percent of 18–29-year-olds approved of his Presidency when it began, since then there has only been a steady decline with the latest approval in this age group at 36 percent. In other words, Biden is getting close to Trump’s popularity in this group, where his highest popularity rating was slightly above 30 percent at the start of his Presidency and fluctuated ending at 30 percent in his last year. For now: Plan on this age group staying home and not voting, that helps Trump.

I get the feeling that Biden may have a problem with media consultants who are telling him to talk about his “Bidenomics” or what he is doing for the economy, which is fine to address, but ignoring the age issue is beyond foolish.  Maybe the idea is that it will be addressed if or when Trump wins the Republican nomination to run for President again.  I see all that as a mistake.  The public is developing their opinions on Biden now and he needs to address the age issue. If one of the other Republicans hoping to get the nomination becomes the Republican Presidential candidate, the age issue will be worse for Biden.  Challenge Trump to a bike race.  OK, there is the video of Biden falling off a bike, Trump does not have to worry about that sitting in a golf cart.  Tell, The Donald that if he agrees to a bike race, Biden will agree to a golf cart race.  Make it a bike race for charity.  This may sound facetious, but Biden needs to keep addressing the age issue.  He needs to point out the imbalance in the way public opinion polls as well as news article and TV news have addressed his age without doing the same with Trump—and he needs to do this forcefully rather than some statements that sound like he made them in passing—or makes light of it.  Emphasize and then repeat and do not stop.  If Biden wants something closer to the mark, challenge Trump to a race walking up and down ramps with no handrails.

Don’t Run Joe

Despite everything I said above, I state as I did in a previous newsletter article: Don’t Run Joe. If you believe addressing the age issue in some politically comfortable way is acceptable—that is a terrible mistake. Jump up and down, scream and holler, get on your bike and ride it miles, get off and yell at Trump to do the same and never let up. Biden needs to get creative, otherwise he should not run in 2024. If too many voters see Biden’s age as THE issue—and The Donald’s age as a non-issue—that can become a serious problem. It is a question of how Biden handles the age issue and as of now, he has handled it poorly.

Notes

Nate Ashworth, “Who Replaces Joe Biden if He Drops out in 2024?” Election Central (September 11, 2023): https:// www.uspresidentialelectionnews.com/2023/09/who-replaces-joe-biden-if-he-drops-out-in-2024/

Jill Filipovic, “The Men Who Cost Clinton The Election,” New York Times (December 1, 2017): https:// www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/opinion/matt-lauer-hillary-clinton.html

Harvard Youth Poll, 45th Edition (Spring 2023): https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/45th-edition-spring-2023

Abigail Johnson Hess, “The 2020 election shows Gen Z’s voting power for years to come,” CNBC Make It (November 18, 2020): https:// www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/11/18/the-2020-election-shows-gen-zs-voting-power-for-years-to-come.html

“Long COVID or Post-COVID Conditions,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (July 20, 2023): https:// www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects/index.html

Natasha Korecki and Marc Caputo, “Biden mangles his words-and undercuts his message,” Politico (August, 9, 2019): https:// www.politico.com/story/2019/08/09/biden-iowa-message-2020-1456132

Robert Mackey, “Donald Trump Admits He Gets Confused And Makes Things Up After Watching Fox News,” The Intercept (August 5, 2016): https:// theintercept.com/2016/08/05/donald-trump-admits-doesnt-understand-sees-television/

Ed Mazza, “Trump’s ‘Mental Acuity’ Challenge Gets Exactly Response You’d Expect,” HuffPost (September 11, 2023): https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-mental-acuity-challenge-gets-exactly-the-response-you-d-expect/ar-AA1gxwdY?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=e2ba3f665832491e9c155c852503dfad&ei=34

Mark Murray, “NBC News poll: Nearly 70% of GOP voters stand behind Trump amid indication and investigations,” NBC News (April 23, 2023): https:// www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/nbc-news-poll-nearly-70-gop-voters-stand-trump-indictment-investigatio-rcna80917

Matt Palumbo, “Crooked Hillary Admits Biden’s Age Is An Issue: ‘It’s A Concern For Anyone,’” The Dan Bognino Show (May 23, 2023): http:// bongino.com/crooked-hillary-admits-bidens-age-is-an-issue-its-a-concern-for-anyone

Martin Pengelly, “Trump lashes out after critics highlight unsteady walk down West point ramp,” The Guardian (June 14, 2020): https:// www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/14/trump-unsteady-walk-down-west-point-ramp

Martin Pengelly, “‘Cognitively Impaired’? trump’s confused attacks on Biden start to backfire,” The Guardian (September 18, 2023): https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/18/trump-biden-age-election-2024

Marianna Pogosyan, “Why We See What we want To See,” Psychology Today (November 9, 2019): https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-cultures/201907/why-we-see-what-we-want-see#:~:text=Why%20are%20we%20prone%20to%20seeing%20what%20we,we%20report%20seeing%20what%20we%20wish%20to%20see%29.

Roderik Rekker, “Young trendsetters: How young voters fuel electoral volatility,” Electoral Studies, 75 (2022): https:// pdf.sciencedirectassets.com/271752/1-s2.0-S0261379421X00066/1-s2.0-S0261379421001372/main.pdf?X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEBoaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJHMEUCIQClzyNM3s4Ae%2BivopcKbONhCo8Ss2TEc8q9P9TmoMn0KAIgY%2Fm45iQAicdIxfTiCL5FIhd8tMmPtfk8%2Bg%2BBpyUSTgIqvAUI8%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FARAFGgwwNTkwMDM1NDY4NjUiDCsxZ84y%2BguLsbUvwCqQBalAFH7%2FjbkM5vQfAlcpgPnBOm8OPq0HMnA%2FuQvDq5Hbs4vhtsgbn5ZdBQ4ahJr6PRsgz2CdhB8cPlSlpwIzZZMEwMoFkVeLFln9y2TI1YE%2FQzlEyl%2BY8CYe44wq9oAQlk8J5bej2l4bw4wn%2BdL9wTHaYChEFllJhthmHBtELEf8Yxxuh7nwWPzuPqfA%2F9TyuKJAqlNSZMIv6QSTCmQrn%2BMNKnMs7KVuJH5qRJVk3t7tqoAHBy%2Fp1mQMaFPIO5B0r7vj5R%2BqTWT%2Bxm2uolI8BKFDxFECET1i5nel1XCf%2BYFIeNaX4xova%2B%2F6zpyrH8AZmm0JownpzW9tl5nb1be73urg8nmRElS5zvEKbcMQ6iuA2nx6kNWYXKDSG%2Fy9wKeHpiiJdJPhZUCrXuMiQa4dKtFDATpIUi4RFNIULpvWMzssBrRGipFdgFOmz%2F14Xs%2BJwxudXC5WNosbf3F%2FVTt3howIeDWlk4GDd678TQIBkklLb2OEBaAWJ1%2FUXU2rJpr8uNKbz5vnYYn9hEh%2BiChfJrVZwqoGbRfqE2IyT%2BKCGCDiEetcvuMQrKy6J3ALYM%2FkaptgV1yTMAwQNkKbuOXiXg2c0izt9NTzQwnfhc2zi7SlcRfVgmFUqHkdl3I4UGgKw5LLILN%2BhKV%2ByHPozAqm0lI44sanyLaLMkbx2Yn20beFF8ZfFcuuQwf7NFt3OtRWwvu5uuPbBLgNhnSe%2FEFJfMm4IHMDHL5h4gGTHuK9a7czoimOt%2Fa5fVLgVXpOBDP4Sq5kFL6fLMUvx%2FrPG9%2FFjdFrva%2BcJQQ%2BT3PhXV61QMBIEqQ8AlxaSSQ53eQ6No1UmzUoykZvsPkedx3NADLc3eIeB3Z8lweuZJYI9%2FIyTglqMO6c%2FacGOrEBy%2BAespyoRxfvWNkOtIJE3uV5MQnfkJVS5g0pGfirTDDlah2%2FufL7iJypDT4Akwjyw4JyxY8XPhRPD5F9As%2FDC%2FoUV6ZRkclystHCDhmoy8%2BBwDFrCl285CMCGyX%2B%2Fru8gxz6%2FGMzspmZwFfhpPmYbwoKhA9EkexkNoHZCZVyi6nxHQhCNIDCPJ4J%2FZuWlpTH%2FJ4lyHaGFSDd6QlYNhIq2ACxp9vq746C43TlFAl4XtvI&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20230911T181054Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAQ3PHCVTYZZSPUJTI%2F20230911%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=759a7becb3d037a9d3242c27585b6ede62a6e0ed5a464c7e776730259c5c37b8&hash=88f14edb438894455d0eeffa7e0f7e93abc9edc1122197d2e586bea23563dc84&host=68042c943591013ac2b2430a89b270f6af2c76d8dfd086a07176afe7c76c2c61&pii=S0261379421001372&tid=spdf-7d085fe1-26a7-4065-bbcb-8b1a446ce717&sid=9d9a7f439f158046663a1bb10a937a3581f9gxrqa&type=client&tsoh=d3d3LnNjaWVuY2VkaXJlY3QuY29t&ua=111457515b53000500&rr=8051dec06aec0439&cc=uz

Semra Sevi, “Do young voters vote for young leaders?” Electoral Studies, Volume 69 (February 2021): https:// www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261379420300834

THR Staff, “Sarah Paulson Does Dramatic Reading of Hillary Clinton’s Leaked Emails on ‘Full Frontal,’” The Hollywood Reporter (November 8, 2016): https:// www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/sarah-paulson-reads-hillary-clinton-emails-samantha-bee-945232/

Jake Thomas, “WATCH: Trump Has Trouble Walking Down Stairs, Appears To Be Dragging His Leg,” The Intellectualist (February 3, 2020): https:// mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/news/watch-trump-has-trouble-walking-down-stairs-appears-to-be-dragging-his-leg

“Trump’s doctor: What’s behind the confusion and contradiction,” BBC (October 5, 2020: https:// www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-54413823

Will Weissert, Emily Swanson and Darlene Superville, “Biden is ‘old,’ Trump is ‘corrupt’: AP-NORC poll has ominous signs in possible 2024 rematch,” AP (August 28, 2023): https://apnews.com/article/biden-trump-2024-poll-old-corrupt-12b806876e2072790f9a67793761c688

Anthony Zurcher, “Hillary Clinton emails: How FBI verdict affects US election,” BBC News (November 6, 2016): https:// www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37891705