Thoughts on Joe Biden by Someone Five Years Older

I can't relate to his history or his presidency, but I can shed light on why his age shouldn't matter.

Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP

I’ll get right to it: whenever I hear cries for Joe Biden to step down because of his age and seeming fragility, I can’t help but take it personally. Joe and I are old. I’m about the age Joe will be when he finishes his second term. We have our good days and our bad days, but, damn, we surprise ourselves sometimes with what we can still do.

Sometimes we take it for granted because day by day we do what we need to do and it’s turning out okay.

But on those days when we completely flub it, we honestly do question the wisdom of keeping on. I know you’re thinking I can’t speak for Joe, but I’m telling you, I think I can. Never imagine we don’t question ourselves. The smart thing is to always question ourselves and maybe even adjust. Joe knows this, too.

This is what Joe said after his talked-about appearance on stage with that wacky, incorrigible monster whose only ‘debate’ goal was to walk all over him and make him look weak.

"I know I'm not a young man. I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know — I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job. I know how to get things done.

And then the next day he went on to give another meaningful speech. A “Joe” speech. Did it quiet those on both sides demanding he step down? Hardly. They’re on a mission, bless their hearts.

They don’t want Kamala, either. That’s telling.

It’s mere months before the most important election of our lifetimes and they’ve decided there’s a miracle candidate out there who can surely wipe Donald Trump off the presidential stage. They’re convinced they can convince the doubters and the never-convincibles that “anyone but Joe” is the way to go.

Silly gooses.

Do they think all of the work rests on Joe? Do they think if Joe falters for even a minute all hell breaks loose and doom threatens? Joe doesn’t do it alone. Joe has an entire West Wing working to make things happen. He has cabinet leaders who lead their posts with efficiency. Thousands of worker bees hold jobs in a government system made a million times better than anything that madman Donald Trump ever put into place.

Joe is the leader and so far all indications are that this decades-long veteran of the trenches knows the ins and outs of governing better than almost anyone.

That’s not to say he doesn’t make mistakes. Presidents aren’t gods. Every president makes mistakes. Dissecting the reasons for Joe’s mistakes and coming up with “he’s old and wobbly" would be laughable if it weren’t so reckless.

The danger in that is in the ammunition it gives the other side. And it’s not just Joe’s opponents who latch on, it’s our American press. They’re all too eager to prove even the Democrats don’t want Joe Biden.

Except we do.

The vast majority of Democrats will ignore the pundits and the polls and will without hesitation, vote for Joe Biden for President of the United States. There is no ‘age crisis’ except the one deliberately being manufactured.

The question is, why? Why are they doing it? A Trump win would be a disaster. They’ve read or at least heard about Project 25 (or “How to Build an Oligarchy”), the Republican/Heritage Foundation promise to dismantle an otherwise healthy, productive, protective governmental system and replace it with favors to the long-suffering insufferably rich who, try as they might, still haven’t managed to own it all.

They’re convinced their day is coming, and they’re throwing unbelievable amounts of money at it. Because in our culture, including in our government, money talks. They don’t care who else wants what they want. They want what they want, and with every win, with every advance—and there have been plenty—they’re energized. They see those wins as validation.

They’re sure now they deserve to own the country. And why not? They’re on a roll. Trump’s entire nasty regime is building credibility all over the place. The numbers of billionaires keep rising; Trump’s billionaire donors keep giving. There’s a reason for that and it’s not because any of them want to cuddle up with Donald.

So let’s put a stop to this and to them. Okay? Joe Biden flubbed a network performance. He’s good at what he does—governing. Not so good at those things that are, in the end, essentially meaningless.

Focus, please.

Remember that Donald Trump, as president, was good above all else at demanding loyalty. But more than that, he demanded that his White House ignore his deadly ignorance and instead perpetrate the ludicrous lie that presidenting came naturally to him, that he had all the answers, when in reality he was a raging bull nutjob.

One thing Donald Trump is not is Joe Biden. Only Joe Biden is Joe Biden. Joe is old. He’s been around. He’s proving to be one of our best presidents, and maybe it’s because he’s been around, in the thick of things when governing happened. He’s seen it all. He knows the pitfalls, he knows what works.

He’s doing what he needs to do for the country. He’s doing it for us. As someone five years his senior, I have no doubt—and I’m grateful—he’ll be here to go on doing it. A wrinkle in a life of many days is nothing. Age is a number. Joe Biden deserves another four years.

All the rest, I don’t have to remind you, is increasingly dangerous noise.