How bad is Joe Biden?
When even former Obama aides have to admit that there are issues, you know there's a problem.
Former aides who worked directly with then-Vice President Joe Biden in the Obama administration said fears about his age are “a very real issue.”
“If you watch Joe Biden speak, oftentimes he sounds frail and he sounds more frail than he used to, even in 2019 and 2020,” Jon Favreau, the chief speechwriter for Obama when Biden was vice president, said in a recent episode of the “Pod Save America” podcast.
“The voice sounds frail, and he shuffles more because of the arthritis in his back,” Favreau said, adding that the oldest-ever president also appears “mumbly.”
He noted polls showing as many as 80% of Americans have expressed concern about the president being 81 — saying it needs to be tackled head-on because voters can see his clear decline.
Favreau tried to give a little spin by arguing that sounding frail and mumbly wasn't necessarily an indication of Biden's mental state. He suggested that the campaign deal with the issue head-on, but acknowledged that Biden doing appearances would make things even worse.
Former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett agreed.
I’m sure that going out there means more missteps … more gaffes that start circulating, but if you don’t view Biden being out there as a net positive, then the argument he shouldn’t be running is right.
Former Obama senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said that if Biden can’t assuage the concerns, "particularly among his voters from 2020, then I don’t think he can win the election — so in some ways, it’s the crux for his campaign.”
He agreed the campaign had to address the age issue as their “first strategic priority.”
“There’s a segment of voters who have decided — as of right now, I think their minds can be changed — who have decided that Joe Biden is too old for the job and can’t do it, so they’re not going to listen to anything he says,” he said.
Former Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod suggested that they let "Biden be Biden" and that Biden get angry at Trump.
The problem is that people can see the confusion coming out from Biden every day, in so many ways, so it's not just that he sounds frail and that he shuffles. His mind is frequently incoherent. Even in his latest softball interview, he was asked about his 2024 agenda and he responded by talking about his "2020 agenda," seemingly confused over the year. The problem is that he simply shouldn't be running.
Biden getting angry at Trump and demonizing MAGA people hasn't worked either. Biden being Biden is just a reminder of how deficient he is. The problem isn't just the age, it's his policies too. Six in 10 Americans now believe Biden's failed policies are enough to disqualify him from keeping his job. A Gallup poll from last week says that they don't think he deserves to win.
A majority of Americans (61%) say President Biden does not deserve to be reelected.
— GallupNews (@GallupNews) February 21, 2024
Full story: https://t.co/hMsfv8AvWC pic.twitter.com/oMlP9mDAuu
If they think he's too old and his ideas are bad, what basis then is there to vote for him?
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