Longtime So Cal resident Charles Carr is a nationally published journalist and playwright. His award-winning Southpaw column has appeared in college textbooks published by Macmillan, St. Martin's Press, Bedford, and others. Charles writes Southpaw for his hometown newspapers, The Times-Advocate and The Roadrunner.
The age-old old age question
I get it. Joe's a certifiable geezoid. He's older than the oldest person in the history of the universe to ever to run for the American presidency. The previous winner was... Joe, himself, four years ago.
For a lot of voters it's not difficult to imagine Joe sitting in the oval office, vacantly grinning, with a sign behind him that that reads: "When I go, I want to go like grandpa, smiling and in my sleep. Not like all those people screaming in his car." But you'd be wrong. It's not a sign, it's a wall hanging embroidered by Betsy Ross herself. She made it for Joe. They dated briefly.
Kidding aside, with all the current hubbub about the age of our president -- and let's not forget, his nearly-as-old opponent -- it's easy to forget we've been here before.
Journey with me to olden times... 1984. Ronald Reagan, 73, was running for reelection. His age had created a major brouhaha four years earlier when he was sworn in a few days shy of his 70th birthday, making him the oldest person ever to become president to that point. (Hmm... this is starting to sound familiar.) Now, in 1984, Reagan was almost 74 and had survived a near-fatal assassination attempt to-boot, which would rip a few pages off anyone's calendar. But at the presidential debate when the moderator popped the question about age everyone knew was coming, Reagan wryly retorted, "I want you to know... I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience." Clever, and it pretty much put the kibosh on any further discussion. It didn't answer the question, but the way he didn't answer it -- nimbly and wittily -- assuaged the public about his mental acuity, which is the thing that really matters to most people. Sort of the way Joe's own numbers have shot up since his knock-it-out-of-the-park State of the Union back in March.
Jump ahead to 1996. Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. Every presidential cycle seems to have one reductive and just plain dopey question the entertainment news media fixates on like, "Which one would you most want to have a beer with?" or "Would they be ready to handle a 3am crisis phone call?" That year, the big question was -- I kid you not -- "What kind of undies do you wear, boxers or briefs?" That's all we heard for weeks; boxers or briefs, boxers or briefs. Dole's age -- he was 73 at the time -- was a big deal, so the joke going around was: "What type of undies does Bob Dole wear, boxers or briefs?" The answer: "Depends." Dole was never quite able to shake the age thing, particularly running against a Kennedy-esque opponent like Clinton.
Times change. Yes, both Biden and Trump are quite a bit older than previous candidates. Then again, people are also living longer. Think about it too long and you'll get a headache and have to go lie down. But if you're still in the "Hell no, I won't Joe" camp, let's take a look at what really matters: What has President Biden accomplished in his first term?
Let's start with pulling the nation out of the worst pandemic in over a century. Yes, too much money was probably handed out indiscriminately and we need to claw some of that back. But the recession that was predicted by virtually every economist at the end of Trump's presidency never materialized. According to factcheck.org, unemployment is down, way down, from 6.4% to 3.4%. Fourteen million jobs have been added, nearly 5 million more than before the pandemic. Stock indexes are up 28.2%. Enrollment in Affordable Care Act marketplace plans is at its highest point ever, crude oil production is up 12.7%, imports are up 8.7%.
Next, Biden pushed through the CHIPS and Science Act authorizing $280 billion in new funding to boost domestic semiconductor research and manufacturing aimed largely at reducing Chinese dominance in the consumer and military electronics sectors.
Then there's the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law aimed at rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure: roads, bridges, rails, ports, and airports.
Inflation is still up, but, according to politifact.org, has dropped from 9% to a little over 3%. The Inflation Reduction Act is helping with improvements to the tax code along with new investments in healthcare and expanded tax credits for clean energy, boost efficiency, support for climate-smart agriculture, and programs to help workers transition away from a fossil fuel-based economy. And lest you think Joe is a darling of the eco left, think again: Biden green lit the so-called Willow oil project which will allow drilling in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve. He is also allowing the auctioning of more than 73 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to offshore oil and gas drilling. Bad moves, Joe, but no one gets everything.
That's quite a record, and it would be even better if Congress had not stalled the bipartisan 2024 Border Bill which provides a much-needed overhaul of our asylum laws along with enhanced border security. The bill sailed through the Senate before being blocked by Republicans in the House who immediately began singing in 222 part harmony that it would allow 5,000 immigrants a day. Not true, according to countless sources including NBC News, factcheck.org, and poynter.org. More like they realized working together to solve problems at the border would remove a major election issue they all plan to run on in the fall.
Okay, pretty, pretty good, Mr. Biden. But let's say you're still not nuts about voting for the guy. Maybe you're still mad he dumped Betsy Ross for Martha Washington. So consider doing this: go ahead and show up at the polls anyway and tell yourself you're not voting for Joe; you're voting against the other guy; a divisive, vindictive enfant terrible with a mountain of baggage and petty personal agendas that will make the hot mad maddening winds of his first term look like a spring day by comparison.
Come November, it will be up to us -- and only us -- to determine if the past four years was the end of a national nightmare or merely a brief lull in the eye of Hurricane Donald.