The left-wing New York Times has warned readers that Democrat President Joe Biden’s “decline” is raising concerns about his chances of re-election in 2024.
In a Wednesday op-ed, columnist Ross Douthat said that Biden’s age and apparent “health crisis” are casting doubt about his presidential election bid.
Douthat warns that Biden’s weakness may lead to victory for President Donald Trump.
“I do not think Biden’s decline is overstated by the media; by some Republicans, maybe, but the mainstream press is, if anything, treading gingerly around the evident reality,” Douthat wrote.
“But I do think Biden’s defenders are correct that the effect of his age on his presidency has been, at most, only mildly negative,” he added.
Douthat compared the “increasing anxiety” around Biden’s “lousy poll numbers” to baseball.
“The ball will always find you,” he analogized.
“If you place a player where he shouldn’t be, or try to disguise a player’s incapacity by shifting him away from the likely action or give a player you love a chance to stay on the field too long for sentimental reasons, the risk you take will eventually catch up to you, probably at the worst possible moment,” he explained.
Likewise, Democrats running Biden as the 2024 nominee creates a serious risk of President Trump taking back the White House, Douthat argued.
“[I]n running Biden for re-election, Democrats are making a fateful bet that this successful management can simply continue through two sets of risks: the high stakes of the next election, in which a health crisis or just more slippage might be the thing that puts Trump back in the White House, and the different but also substantial stakes of another four-year term,” he later wrote.
“Where I have criticisms of Bidenism, they’re mostly the normal ones a conservative would have of any liberal president, not special ones associated with chaos or incompetence created by cognitive decline,” Douthat continued.
But Douthat acknowledged the possibility that “Biden can limp to another victory, that his second term will yield no worse consequences than, say, Ronald Reagan’s did, that having managed things thus far, his aides, spouse, and cabinet can see the next five years through.”
A growing number of liberal columnists and thought leaders are arguing that Biden’s age is a liability for his presidential ambitions.
On Tuesday, the Washington Post made the surprising case against Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris running for re-election.
Columnist David Ignatius argued that while Biden “has been a successful and effective president,” it still would be a mistake for him to run for re-election in 2024.
According to Axios, Ignatius has long been one of Biden’s favorite newspaper columnists, which will surely make his words sting a little more.
“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday insisted that “everybody” he and co-host Mika Brzezinski talk to say of Biden: “Man, he’s too old to run.”
Scarborough also added that several Democrats have made such comments to him off the air.
As for Harris, multiple liberal columnists are now urging Biden to ditch Harris as his running mate for the 2024 presidential election.
On Wednesday, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) refused to say whether she believes Harris is Biden’s best running mate.
Pelosi even quietly admitted that there’s not too much to the position.
Columnists at The Washington Post, New York Magazine’s The Intelligencer, and a prominent independent writer said there are “better options available” for Biden’s running mate.
Many are calling on Biden to choose one of them if he wants a shot at winning re-election.