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Do Not Let "His Age" be 2024's "Her Emails" [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2023-09-13
[Cross-posted on my new Substack, The Janovsky Report]
The 2024 Election is more than a year away but like a slow-motion train wreck, the media narrative of “old Biden” is forming before our eyes.
What we are up against
The NY Times is relentless in its distorted and incorrect Biden coverage. Just today, the headline is "Democratic Jitters Grow, Biden Campaign Tries to Showcase His Vigor.” (I can’t help but channel JFK’s use of vigor (pronounced “vigah” as memorably channeled by impressionist Vaughn Meader).
An especially galling culprit here is Nate Silver. Galling because it was on this very site in 2007, that Silver made his first (political) appearance as “Poblano.” Then, in the 2008 elections Nate was a “calming with data” presence here.
Silver, who has been trying (lamely, in my view) to transition from data analyst to pundit, has been banging the age drum for a while, but now to an absurd extent. Parker Molloy notes in There's a Lot of "Is Biden Too Old?" Coverage. Nate Silver Wants There to Be Even More. Parker shows how ridiculous this is, but cautions:
It’s the “Hillary’s emails!” and “Hunter’s laptop!” strategy all over again. Clinton’s emails were considered important by the public because that’s what people would see whenever they turn on the news, whether there were new revelations or not.
It’s the ultimate self-fulfilling-prophecy-vicious cycle:
Media floods zone with “Biden is old” coverage.
Polls show people think Biden is too old
Media runs stories about how polls show Biden is too old
New polls show (maybe even more people) think Biden is too old
All of this is amplified by non-stop Fox and hate radio
What we must do
The Argument
I. With age comes experience
On his Hopium site, Simon Rosenberg provides daily messaging about Democrats’ and Biden’s accomplishments:
Those of us who are formerly young understand that with age comes experience, wisdom, and capability. The country has benefited greatly from having had a President who is the most experienced we’ve ever had, as he has ably led us through COVID, insurrection, global inflation and conflict brought by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, extreme weather events, gun violence and so much more. His age and experience is what has made Joe Biden a good President, and has left this great nation far better off.
II. With experience comes accomplishment
Simon provides daily reminders and extensive examples of what Biden has accomplished. While the Times wrote about “Vigah” reporting on the G20 trip, Simon writes:
The President has had a very successful G20/Asia trip where among other things he announced a far-sighted economic and trade corridor linking India, the Middle East and Europe: With Xi and Putin and Absent, Biden Steps Into The Void to Woo Allies.
Dratler here compares Biden favorably with both Clinton and Obama, and has a great summary of Biden’s achievements:
Everyone frets about his age. But the experience that comes with age has made him the most successful and productive president I ever got to vote for, and I’m 78. … No president since FDR or Harry Truman (with his Marshall Plan and desegregating the Army) has done as much as Joe Biden to maintain and improve democracy, equality and the lives of ordinary Americans. ... In comparison [with Clinton and Obama], Biden’s list of major accomplishments is breathtaking. Together with the lamely named “Inflation Reduction Act,” Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act gave us the largest investment in fighting our species’ primary (and accelerating!) existential threat—global warming—of any nation in human history. It also began fixing a woefully dilapidated national infrastructure that had been dramatically brought to our national attention at least fourteen years before and that no one, including Biden’s immediate predecessor, had even managed even to begin to fix.
If you haven’t yet, read the whole thing,
III. It’s the incumbency stupid
The age concern trolls fail to consider the complete cost benefit analysis of Biden running, primarily the advantages of incumbency and avoidance of a primary battle. Biden and Dems determined these factors favored him running. Any omission of these factors makes the age trolls’ view incomplete and simplistic.
[To be continued]
[END]
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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/9/13/2192801/-Do-Not-Let-His-Age-be-2024-s-Her-Emails
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