According to The New York Times Joe Biden is a Great President, But He's Very, Very Old
As a reporter, it’s pretty scary going into a story with a certain mindset and after doing research and interviews, you find that what you thought the story was about is totally off the mark, and is, in fact totally opposite of what you originally thought.
It makes you rethink your whole approach to the story. And if you’re on a deadline, it adds to the pressure.
But that’s what’s so much fun about reporting. Things don’t always turn out like you planned. You may actually learn something and have to come at it from an angle you never considered before. That’s what makes the job so interesting.
If you’re the conservative media, though, you go with your original thesis and pick and choose your quotes and anecdotes to suit your theories. The facts be damned.
If you’re The New York Times – which I guess does actually have some allegiance to actual journalism left – you go with the prevailing narrative, no matter how screwed up it makes your story turn out.
Case in point, a recent article by political reporter Katie Glueck about President Joe Biden.
Her recent article “Biden Helped Democrats Avert a ’22 Disaster. What About ’24?,” starts with the premise that while Biden has been a great president and has done some amazing things, he’s way too old to run again in 2024. And even a large number of Democrats feel that way too.
Except maybe they don't. Because that’s not actually what Katie found in her reporting, apparently.
“In private conversations, younger Democratic operatives have shifted from discussing potential job opportunities in a competitive presidential primary to gaming out what a Biden re-election campaign might look like,” Katie writes.
Basically, before the midterms, Democratic operatives had written off a Biden re-election run – not because he’s been ineffective– but because he’s too old. How dare Father Time consider even running again for president, when there are so many young worthy contenders waiting in the wings.
In 2024, President Biden will be 82.
But since the Democrats crushed the Republicans in the midterms, President Biden isn’t looking so bad now. And he has a decent record of achievement to run on.
But did we mention that he’s pretty old?
Democratic pollster Stanley B. Greenberg tells Katie that “President Biden has done remarkable things. I think we need a new voice to address huge challenges but also huge opportunities.”
He’s done remarkable things, but he’s way too old to get anything done. We need a new voice to address the challenges he faces after his remarkable achievements.
That new voice has to deal with the “rise” in crime and the “crisis” at the border. Two made up issues that the Republicans thought would help them in the midterms. Two issues that some Democratic “operatives” think will define the next election.
Probably just like it did in the midterms, eh.
Why do we need a “new voice” to address these issues when the President has done a good job? And who would that new voice be?
No one seems to know exactly.
Plenty of young Democrats are mentioned as successors to President Biden – Vice President Kamala Harris, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
The last two are not exactly “new voices” and certainly are not young.
And isn’t Vice President Kamala Harris the one responsible for “the crisis” at the border anyway?
Apparently all the Democratic operatives that think he’s too old to beat younger challengers forgot that President Biden ran against every one of the above mentioned people in the 2020 Democratic Primary and beat them handily.
“The concerns about Mr. Biden’s overall weak standing in public opinion polls — which was a burden for many Democratic candidates — have not dissipated entirely,” Katie tells us, right after pointing out that polls show that 71% of Democrats think President Biden could win in 2024, up from 60% in August.
Some of those public opinion polls used include this one, which we debunked as faulty recently.
So, basically, President Biden’s approval rating is pretty low, but he can still win in 2024. Sure, that makes perfect sense.
Then we’re told: “Surveys of voters leaving the polls found that two-thirds, including nearly a third of Democrats, said they did not want Mr. Biden to run for president again — though Mr. Biden’s allies have noted those numbers are not predictive of how voters would respond when presented with a choice between the president and a Republican candidate.”
So an exit poll on Election Day – surveying both Republicans and Democrats – found that people don’t think President Biden should run. Two years from the next election.
Well, we know why Republicans on Election Day didn’t think President Biden should run again in 2024. But why nearly a third of Democrats?
Because it’s an exit poll taken on Election Day. Before Democrats – or anyone else for that matter – knew how things would turn out. Remember, Democrats had been told for weeks by the media that there would be a “Red Wave” and they’d probably lose the House and the Senate. Going in to vote, the mood among Democrats was apprehensive. If President Biden was going to lose control of both houses of Congress, he definitely would not be their first choice for president in 2024.
But none of that happened. Still, The New York Times wants you to know that plenty of Democrats think President Joe Biden should not run again in 2024. Because, you know, he’s like, very old. To hell with his stellar record of achievements. To hell with his respect among world leaders. To hell with his knowledge of how Congress works.
Lots of Democrats think he’s too old to run again. But on the other hand, lots of Democrats think he’s doing a good job and should run again.
So which is it Katie? Should he or shouldn’t he?
The problem with stories like this is that “Democratic operatives,” or Republican ones for that matter, don’t know anything. What they think now, two years out from the next election, will change five or six times before then.
Political “operatives” rely on previous elections and polling to inform their theories. And as we’ve seen over the past few years, politics has changed. And polling has become less and less reliable. You can’t point to something that happened in the last election to inform what’s going to happen in the next with any accuracy.
You’ll end up looking stupid if you do.