President Biden formally announced he will seek a second term in office. In a campaign video released early Tuesday, the president asked voters to give him more time to “finish the job.” Although there was little doubt that Biden would run again, there was (and is) some doubt about whether he should, even among fellow Democrats, almost half of whom say they’d be OK with someone else as the Democratic candidate.
Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky said Biden has a real record to run on. “I don’t want to start ticking off these huge programs other than to say they’re having massively tangible results. And it’s not just to say a billion here, a trillion there, and look at all the spending. If you have diabetes and you’re of Medicare age, you no longer have to worry about the cost of insulin. That’s a real tangible effect. If you’re driving down a highway or even a local road in New Jersey, that road that’s busted your tire over and over again, that’s now paved, thanks to money that’s come out of this administration. Those are tangible results that matter.”
But Biden is 80, already the oldest president ever in the U.S. and has seemed to show his age on occasion, stumbling verbally, and sometimes, physically. According to Republican strategist Chris Russell, “I don’t think it’s age — at least it’s not for me — but it’s like, when you look at somebody, you have to know that they’re there all the time, and I don’t think he’s there all the time. And I think a lot of people look at him the same way.”
Granted, there’s a solid year and a half before the polls open, and age will be only one issue, and likely by then not the biggest, said Roginsky.
