A little over a year before the American presidential election, David Ignatius, an editorialist for Washington Post, throws a stone in the Democratic pond. In a text entitled “President Biden should not run again in 2024”, he pointed out the obvious on Tuesday, September 12.
Joe Biden’s age is now a major handicap which annihilates all the efforts of the White House to boast of its economic, social or diplomatic successes. The editorialist recalls that, according to a survey ofAssociated Press published at the end of August, 77% of Americans – including 69% of Democrats – believe that this question is a problem: if re-elected, the Democrat will enter the White House at the age of 82 and leave at 86, not an exciting prospect.
What Ignatius does not say is that the polls follow one another and are similar: at the beginning of September, an opinion survey for CNNconfirmed that 73% of voters say they are seriously concerned about the physical vitality and mental acuity of the American president, and that 76% doubt his ability to secure a second term.
The question agitates political leaders: in April, Nikki Haley, Republican presidential candidate, elegantly suggested Fox News that Biden would probably not live to see the end of his second term and that voting for him was in fact voting for Kamala Harris, who would succeed him, under the Constitution.
Public radio NPR was interested in a development that could have gone unnoticed: the number of steps that the president climbs when he boards or disembarks from Air Force One. At the start of his mandate, he took the longest staircase, the one that leads to the top of the aircraft, where he could pose advantageously, overlooking and against the backdrop of the sky. But he now very frequently uses another staircase, shorter and more stable, which previously was only taken out in bad weather.
Bringing out new leaders
In his editorial, David Ignatius does not deny the merits of the 46e President of the United States. The first, and not the least, is to have been able to impose his candidacy in 2019 when there was nothing obvious about it for many Democrats then, and above all, to have “defeated President Donald Trump”. He recalls that, in his inauguration speech, Joe Biden already wrote his political testament: “When we are dead, our children and our children’s children will say of us: ‘They gave the best of themselves, they did their duty, they healed a divided country.’ »
The editorialist gives him discharge. But Ignatius is convinced that Biden, “who doesn’t know how to say “no”” “will run again if he deeply believes that Trump will be the Republican Party’s nominee and has the best chance of [le] defeat and save the country from the nightmare of a revanchist presidency”. David Ignatius does not spare Vice-President Kamala Harris either: she is simply less popular than Biden, according to the poll aggregation site FiveThirtyEight. She failed to make her mark.
He nevertheless calls on the president to engage in a moment of introspection: “In about a month, (…) it will be too late for other Democrats (…) enter the primaries and see if they have the necessary qualities to access the presidency ». Even if he recognizes that at present no Democratic candidate is needed to succeed Joe Biden, the journalist expresses the hope that the head of state will “trust in the democratic system” to see a new leader emerge.
Former President Donald Trump – 77 years old – on the other hand, is not bothered by these questions about age: “Bernie [Sanders] is older than Biden. Whether you like him or not, he is at 100% of his intellectual capacity”he told the host in April Tucker Carlson. Before asserting: “There are a lot of people in their 80s, and even 90s, who are as good and smart as ever. Biden isn’t one of them, but that has little to do with his age. In reality, life begins at 80! »
The World Application
The Morning of the World
Every morning, find our selection of 20 articles not to be missed
Download the app
However, at this moment when America is wondering about the aging of its political staff – should we recall the moment of absence of Republican Mitch McConnell, 81 years old? –, Senator Mitt Romney, whose term ends in January 2025, announced that he would not run for re-election in 2024. “It’s been twenty-five years since I [sers mon pays] one way or another. After another term, I will be over 80 years old. It is frankly time to make way for a new generation of leaders”, declares the unsuccessful 2012 presidential candidate against Barack Obama, now 76 years old. Before adding: “It is up to them to make the decisions that will shape the world in which they will live. » He denies Joe Biden and Donald Trump the ability to respond to the challenges of debt, climate change, authoritarianism at work in Russia and China.