On Tuesday, our octogenarian President Joe Biden announced his 2024 reelection campaign via a video in which he declared that he was the guy to lead the nation for another four years and that voters should trust him and Vice President Kamala Harris to “finish the job.”

Concerns about Biden’s age and mental acuity have dogged him since the days of the 2019 Democratic presidential primary campaign season, which saw other Democrats and even some in the Democrat-compliant mainstream media begin raising uncomfortable questions about whether he was fit to serve considering he was closing in on the 80-year mark and had a penchant for forgetful moments and embarrassing gaffes that gave some people pause.

Republicans, of course, including then-President Donald Trump have also hit out at Biden over the age question over the years, understandably treating the issue as fair game considering the routine hits and predictable obsessing we saw from Democrats and members of the press over Trump’s physical and mental health.

But though Biden and his handlers have routinely scoffed at questions about his ability to lead and whether he’s too old to handle a very demanding and stressful job, with First Lady Jill Biden at numerous points calling the issue too “ridiculous” to even discuss, it’s a campaign tactic used by Biden himself back when he ran for Senate in 1972, as CNN of all places surprisingly reported:

In 1972, Biden, then 29 years old and a local Delaware councilman, was running against incumbent Republican Sen. Cale Boggs who was 63 years old, a former two term governor and the state’s senior senator.

“Cale doesn’t want to run, he’s lost that old twinkle in his eye he used to have,” Biden said of Boggs, who had originally wanted to retire but was persuaded to run for reelection.

Biden used his opponent’s age against him in a way that was so explicit, one local reporter dubbed his approach, “Dear old dad.”

[…]

In 1972, advertisements for Biden in local newspapers and on the radio hammered home a line, “he understands what’s happening today.” The ads targeted Boggs’ age by bringing up past historical topics from Bogg’s “generation,” like Joseph Stalin ruling Russia, jazz musicians using heroin, the development of the polio vaccine, and taxes from the 1940s.

[…]

As Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Norm Lockman wrote, “The new campaign strategy, ordered by Biden himself, eases off the strident tub-thumping and finger pointing and uses an approach that says, in effect, “Dear old dad may have been right for his time – and I love him – but things are different now.’”

The on-air segment CNN did on this story included some newspaper clippings and an audio clip from the time, all of which showed Biden and his campaign hammering the age issue:

CNN airs Biden's 1972 campaign radio ad saying his opponent was too old to serve.

READ: https://t.co/w92AuGXURL pic.twitter.com/DcIzOjlqO7

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 25, 2023

I mean from the looks over it, Biden’s entire campaign was to hit Cale over his age – 63 – which is incredible when one considers that 63 is actually on the low end of the average age for a Senator these days.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1972 pic.twitter.com/u2nwGWTJQ7

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 26, 2023

In the coming weeks and months, Republicans are going to continue to keep the age/mental acuity issue front and center as part of their strategy against Biden, perhaps understanding that past and current polls have shown that a majority of Americans view Biden’s age and condition as a big problem.

While Biden and his surrogates, no doubt, will cry foul and point to his record to say “look at what I’ve done,” what they’re probably not counting on is Republicans being loaded for bear on the issue, as Biden has given them the equivalent of encyclopedia volumes full of troubling statements and decisions to use against him – including the ones from that 1972 Senatorial campaign.

Flashback: House Democrat Blurts out an Uncomfortable Truth About Joe Biden During Interview