Still more bad news for Biden
Byron York
STILL MORE BAD NEWS FOR BIDEN. The evidence is piling up that most people do not believe Joe Biden is mentally or physically fit to serve a second term as president of the United States. A few weeks ago, this newsletter discussed a poll by ABC News and the Washington Post that found 63% of registered voters did not think Biden has the “mental sharpness” to serve and that 62% said he is not in good enough physical health to serve.
Some thought that poll was an outlier. It was not. Now, a new poll from Harvard-Harris asked the question a slightly different way: “Is Joe Biden mentally fit to serve as President of the United States or do you have doubts about his fitness for office?” Fifty-seven percent of registered voters said they have doubts about Biden’s mental fitness, while 43% said they believe he is fit to serve.
Then the pollsters asked a broader question: “Do you think Joe Biden is showing he is too old to be president or do you think he is showing he is fit to be president?” Sixty-five percent said Biden is showing he is too old to be president, while 35% said he is fit.
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Sixty-five percent! That’s a very big number. Breaking it down by party, the results show that 94% of Republicans believe Biden is too old to be president, while 74% of independents say the same thing. Even among Democrats, 33%, fully one-third, say the president is too old to serve.
The pollsters’ next question pointed to the real-world consequences of Biden’s age. The question was: “Do you think President Biden is able to serve another full term as president or do you think Kamala Harris would wind up taking over at some point if Biden is reelected?” Sixty-one percent of respondents, a clear majority, think Vice President Kamala Harris will become President Kamala Harris at some point in Biden’s second term, if there is one. Just 39% said they expect Biden to serve another full term.
How can that not be a major issue, perhaps the major issue, in the coming presidential campaign? Strong majorities of voters do not believe the president is fit to serve a second term, and yet that is precisely what he is asking to do. How could there be any more fundamental question?
The age issue will have a unique effect on the campaign. Most people disapprove of how Biden has handled most things as president. It’s not a good record. But at the same time, Biden could conceivably improve his performance. He could, for example, reinstitute some basic policies that would greatly improve the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border. That is not to say he will do that — he likely won’t — but he could. The same is true with other areas Biden is handling badly. He could improve his positions, or he could promise to do so in the future. Voters could support him in the hope that he will be a better president in a second term.
But age is something Biden cannot change. He is getting old and will be 82 when the next term starts and 86 when it ends, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. He is too old to be president, and he cannot become not too old to be president. Voters cannot hope that he will become younger. They just have to decide whether they believe he is too old to serve. Before considering any other candidate, that is the voters’ threshold question of the 2024 presidential campaign.
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