President Joe Biden faces a problem with no solution. No interview or speech will convince a doubtful public that he is still fit to serve. Perceptions of him had years to harden.
In June 2020, 36% of voters said Biden was too old to serve. By 2024, that number had roughly doubled. In the New York Times/Siena poll conducted in February, 73% said he was “too old to be an effective president.
” In the April poll, 69% said the same. In the June poll, 70%. After the debate, 74%.
The debate didn’t change what voters believed about Biden. The debate made it impossible for the Democratic Party to continue ignoring what voters already believed about Biden. And make no mistake: They were ignoring it.
After calling for Biden to step aside in February, I had a lot of conversations with top Democrats about Biden’s age. They universally knew it was a serious, perhaps lethal, political problem. So why didn’t they do anything? They thought the criticisms were unfair to Biden, who has been a good president; they thought the problem was unsolvable, because he would not step aside; they thought there were no other options; and above all, they thought Donald Trump’s malignancy would overwhelm fears of Biden’s infirmity.
They now know it won’t. In a post-debate Data for Progress poll, voters were asked which concerned them more: Biden’s age and physical and mental health or Trump’s criminal charges and threats to democracy. By 53% to 42%, they chose Biden’s age.
The Democrat.
