AGE IS JUST A NUMBER — When the clatter of someone tripping interrupted President Joe Biden’s remarks at an Illinois event this week, he paused and asked, “You OK? I want the press to know that wasn’t me.” His ad lib prompted a big laugh in an otherwise serious speech about his administration’s commitment to union jobs. It was one of a handful of references he made to his age as the 80-year-old president spoke before a few hundred United Auto Workers employees Wednesday. Biden’s age, of course, is no laughing matter these days. It’s at the heart of his precarious standing in the polls and he needs a strategy — something, anything — for addressing voters’ concerns about electing an octogenarian to a second term which will end when he is 86 years old. In August, about three-quarters of adults in an Associated Press-NORC poll said they think Biden is too old to effectively serve as president. Even among Democrats, the numbers were scary — 69% said he was too old. When asked what words come to mind when mentioning Biden, 26% of all adults cited words associated with age (such as old, outdated, aging and elderly) and 15% mentioned words associated with being slow and confused. Biden’s likely opponent in 2024, Donald Trump, is a mere three years younger. But the public doesn’t have nearly the same impressions of the 77-year-old former president. Only half said he is too old to effectively serve as president. As far as word association, only 1% associated Trump with age and 3% associated him with being slow and confused. His problem was different — the public associated him with crime and corruption. That’s a major liability, for sure, but it doesn’t make Biden’s task of convincing voters he’s vigorous enough for a second term any easier. It’s an issue that’s the subject of much hand-wringing among Democrats, even if they are reluctant to address it publicly for fear of undermining Biden. Instead, Biden’s allies say age is just a number. They point to the president’s recent travels around the world — and to war zones, no less. “What people are afraid of is the age of the candidates’ ideas,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told Wisconsin Democrats at a fundraiser last month. Pritzker, a surrogate for the Biden campaign who’s been mentioned as a future presidential candidate himself, sees age as an asset. “Folks … Lauren Boebert is only 36. J.D. Vance is 39. Matt Gaetz is 41. We all agree that they may be young, but what they stand for is old and ugly,” he said, referencing lightning-rod Republicans in Congress who are half Biden’s age. Biden appears to be embracing that thinking in the hopes of neutralizing the issue. At the White House Correspondents Dinner a few months ago, he spoke directly to the point with a self-deprecating age joke, saying, “I believe in the First Amendment and not just because my good friend Jimmy Madison wrote it.” More recently, speaking at the UAW event Wednesday, he pointed to the red UAW T-shirt he wore awkwardly over his dress shirt. “I’ve been involved with the UAW longer than you were alive, man,” he told the audience, to laughter. “That’s a fact,” he continued. “Some of you weren’t around. You were too young.” He closed his speech by reminding the audience that wisdom comes with age. “I can honestly say — and I mean this from the bottom of my heart — I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future than I am today. And I know I only look like I’m 30, but I’ve been around a long time,” he said, prompting another laugh from the crowd. “We have to just keep going.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at skapos@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ShiaKapos.
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