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On 19 Nov 2023, Pierre <elonx@protonmail.com> posted some news:ujctia$3q0sd$1@dont-email.me:

Lol! Biden will die and the black whore will take over. That should
ruin Democrats for the next 200 years.

If you haven’t heard, the Democratic Party is full of anxious people
right now. They’re worried about swing-state polls showing JOE BIDEN
losing to DONALD TRUMP. They’re worried about voters panning
“Bidenomics” even as the economy seems to be improving.

But the No. 1 worry at this moment is about the one thing he and his
team can’t change: his advanced age.

The president turns 81 tomorrow. This morning, a pair of stories in
POLITICO and WaPo explore how Biden’s campaign is under growing pressure
from supporters to fashion a strategy for dealing with perhaps his
greatest vulnerability in 2024.

Elena Schneider, Holly Otterbein and Jonathan Lemire open with a scene
from a fundraising retreat where one donor asked the campaign how they
should deal with the growing concerns about his age they keep hearing.
QUENTIN FULKS, the principal deputy campaign manager, essentially told
them Biden isn’t getting younger but they should turn the focus to
Biden’s accomplishments.

“Even those in Biden’s inner circle, including family members, worry
about the optics of age. Those close allies believe that Biden is
mentally up for the job, but some acknowledge that the president can at
times appear frail, according to two people involved in the
conversations but not authorized to speak publicly about internal deliberations.

“One example: As noted on his recent physical, Biden’s gait has
stiffened following foot fractures he suffered playing with his dog in
late 2020. People close to the president have discussed having him walk
shorter distances while on camera. They’ve also advocated, at times,
trading in formal shoes for more comfortable ones — both to make his
stride seem less stiff, but also to reduce the risk of falls.”

RON KLAIN, Biden’s first chief of staff and most ardent defender in the
press: “I think everyone knows it’s an issue, and we have to address it.
… He’ll keep on doing the job, campaigning with vigor and demonstrating
to the American people his energy level, which is quite robust.”

But one anonymous donor had this to say of the campaign: “I think the
strategy is not to even address it, to consider questions like that
stupid or silly. Literally everyone is talking about it, even amongst
donors. But the response is always: ‘What are you going to do?’”

WaPo’s Ashley Parker, Tyler Pager and Michael Scherer also address
Biden’s age at the top of their piece but go broader in an account based
on interviews with 30 Democrats inside and outside the campaign.

“The central concern is that Biden … has lost a step and is showing
visible signs of aging. He has struggled to sell his economic
accomplishments. And there are worries that his campaign, so far devoid
of major events or organizing efforts, is not doing enough to deal with
the public hand-wringing over his chances or the coming threat of Trump,
77.”

There are other sources of Democratic anxiety that the piece explores:

“Some argue that neither Biden nor his team have effectively
communicated a reelection plan, a second-term governing vision or a
clear argument against Trump.”

“Democrats have also expressed concern about the campaign’s thin
operation in battleground states. Outside of pilot programs for
organizing in Arizona and Wisconsin, the campaign has not built on the Democratic National Committee’s presence in key states or placed staff
in any of the early primary states.”


The White House and campaign “largely dismissed the concerns as
unjustified agita, reminiscent of the criticism Biden’s campaign faced
in 2020 and former president BARACK OBAMA’s reelection campaign
underwent in the fall of 2011. They argue that the current polling does
not capture the likely outcome of an election, which will only come into
focus once voters engage next year with the possibility of another Trump
term in the White House.”

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2023/11/19/a-not-so-happy-b irthday-for-biden-00127956

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