From a Google Image Search - Rolling Stone - 2020 election
Joe Biden was retired and had purchased a home near a beach. He obviously was looking forward to a quiet life with his wife Jill, enjoying his family and his grandchildren. He may have felt that he would weigh in on federal and global politics from time to time. The media in 2019 and 2020 in the run-up to the 2020 election would not allow Biden to stay out of politics. They were adamantly against Bernie Sanders or any other Progressive. The New York Times published article after article insisting that Democrats choose a moderate, and the moderate they insisted on was Joe Biden. Biden gave up his golden years to step into the chaos and to calm things down - to remind the American people of what regular order feels like and to put us on a firm Constitutional footing after Trump and the Republicans crashed through so many of our constitutional guardrails. (Again, How Democracies Die).
Now the media is at it again putting their thumbs on the election scales. They don't back Biden this time and they make their disapproval obvious by the contents, the headlines, and the frequency of the articles they print dissing him. Despite any frailties Biden might have, he has been a very good president, accomplishing important objectives against strong opposition from Republicans and MAGA Republicans (if there is still any difference). Incumbents who have governed well get to run for a second term. It would be insulting to shut down this option. The media has not gone so far as to suggest alternative candidates perhaps because that might be considered out-of-line. If anything were to happen to Biden during a second term Kamala Harris has put in the work and has the experience to keep the ship of state afloat. Yet the media seems to be in panic mode.
We got the full treatment last week on February 9 and 10 when Special Prosecutor Hur published his report on the investigation of Biden's possession of classified documents and notebooks that held notes on classified matters. His report offered the American people and the press two pieces of information, one that was in his purview (that Biden would not be charged with a crime over classified documents) and one that was not in his purview - that Biden was having serious problems with memory (although Hur is not a neurologist).
What follows are some links to articles from the New York Times on February 9 and 10, 2024.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/us/biden-age-report-reactions.html
Other 80-Somethings Have Thoughts About Age and the Presidency
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/11/opinion/joe-biden-age.html
Biden Can’t Count on Trump’s Unpopularity Anymore
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/11/opinion/donald-trump-joe-biden-election.html (compares Jimmy Carter and Joe Biden)
Yes, Biden’s Age Matters
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/opinion/biden-press-conference-health.html
Mr. President, Ditch the Stealth About Health
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/opinion/joe-biden-convention-2024.html
The Question Is Not if Biden Should Step Aside. It’s How.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/opinion/biden-age-report-special-counsel.html
The Challenges of an Aging President
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/opinion/letters/biden-age-memory-special-counsel.html
Biden’s Age and Memory: A Pointed Report From the Special Counsel
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/us/politics/biden-trump-aging.html
Why the Age Issue Is Hurting Biden So Much More Than Trump
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/us/politics/biden-trump-age.html
How Old Is Too Old to Be President? An Uncomfortable Question Arises Again.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/us/politics/robert-hur-biden-memory-special-counsel.html
Release of Hur Report Underlines Perils of the Special Counsel’s Job
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/us/politics/democrats-comey-flashback-biden.html
Democrats Suffer a Comey Flashback
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/us/politics/biden-nikki-haley-trump-age.html
Attacking Biden, Nikki Haley Says Trump Has ‘His Own Mental Deficiencies’
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/09/upshot/biden-age-presidency.html
For Voters, When Does Old Become Too Old?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2024/02/10/memory-lapses-brain-biden-trump/
How your memory really works, and how it changes as you age
That is fourteen articles about Biden's age, or what an aging brain is like. That is just one newspaper. The media is doing what they do in every presidential election year once again. They know they have a big bully pulpit, even if is being challenged by digital woes and vulture capitalists. They are trying to sway the 2024 election. If they don't want Trump in the Oval Office again and they don't want Biden, what is it that the media does want? It looks like they are trying to get the American people to have such a low opinion of Joe Biden that he might have to choose an heir apparent to run in his place. Since that is unlikely to happen what they might be doing is getting Trump elected.
Joe Biden (or any Democrat) will block the fascist coup of right-wing Republicans and Trump. We should be grateful that Joe Biden is willing to give up peaceful years to lead America in these days when good and evil are battling for America's soul. Do not let the media sway you from the true choices we face in 2024. Biden may be old but in this case, his age is hardly the issue. Our Great Experiment with a democracy/republic may be due for some revisions (which we can't do while the Republicans are in extremist mode). However, it is still so valuable that when immigrants are asked why they came to America they say one of the only words they know in English, "Freedom".