‘What an old politician understands’ — Biden turns the age issue to advantage

Donald Trump tried hard to defeat Joe Biden by hammering on “Sleepy Joe’s” age. The reason he’s so comfortable and sure-footed is because Joe Biden has been there before — he’s been around for almost 50 years learning what to do.” While Republicans have struggled to define Biden in a critical way generally, their allies in conservative media have tried to exploit the age issue by portraying the president as feeble — focusing on his verbal stumbles, for example, and an actual one ascending the stairs to Air Force One. “He will know exactly what is going on in Washington, D.C. And he has a divining rod of how to tell a phony son of a bitch, and that’s his greatest strength.” But it was Biden’s subsequent eight years as vice president and then the four years after he left office in 2017 — spent reading presidential histories, reflecting on the Obama era and contemplating not just a final campaign but how he’d do the job of president — that have most informed his approach in the White House, according to several people close to him. But, Dunn said, “He knows that losing is not the worst thing that can happen to you.” She pointed to Biden’s comments about the impact of the deaths of Beau in 2015 and of his first wife and infant daughter decades before, adding, “I think when he stops and he talks to people, that for him is more important than the cameras — those human connections.” Although he has indicated he plans to run for reelection in 2024, at the age of 82, Biden stands apart from younger generations of Washington politicians so driven — as he long was — by zeal for media attention and by personal ambition. All signs are ‘Go.’” Brown, who had the luxury of taking Democrats’ sway in Sacramento for granted in blue California, said it’s “imperative” that Biden retain the party’s majorities next year.