That is, is Joe Biden too old to become President once more? Well, if Chuck Grassley (90) wasn’t too old for a red state to vote back in for another six-year term last year (he’ll be 95 when he’s up for re-election), then maybe old Joe’s got a chance.
After all, Joe is my age and I can still do Double Jeopardy like a champ. Of course I don’t have a count-down clock. If I did, I would have to answer, “Who is whatshisname?” but that would have been true 20 years ago. And neither at 60 nor at 80 would I have made a good President. But Joe? Joe Biden? Joe will still be great. Joe the Great, I call him.
There are some good reasons why this is true. For one thing, although Joe does know his politics and, for the most part, works them well, he still really gives a damn. How do I know this? Been watching him for years. He’s made gaffe after gaffe, but none of them have been mean. He’s an old man, but he’s not a mean old man. Even debating whatshername back in 2008 – or was that 12? Not demeaning. Not meanspirited. Not mean.
A second good reason he’s not too old is that he still wants to do good things for us. He wants to fix bridges and dams, fix what’s easy to fix. He’d like to fix what’s hard to fix too, mainly us, but lots of us are making that hard for him. And by us I mean all of us. But I am not going to count the ways. Because in the end, the good reasons that he is not too old, too old to become President for another four years, have little to do with whether he is good enough.
These reasons have everything to do with the fact that the opposition, as it stands today, is more than bad enough. Trump? Do I have to spell it out? DeSantis? Same. There are a few smaller fish to fry, but so far they aren’t going anywhere and if they do, not good.
The opposition has a mean streak long enough to ban abortion access in a swath of states, including my own, where at least 40% of their population would rather they did no such thing. Long enough to give young men the right to carry guns wherever and whenever they choose with no training and no questions asked. Long enough to deny Medicaid Expansion to the most vulnerable of citizens because … Obamacare?
Listen to these people talk. Watch their faces. These people are mean. You don’t want them appointing crossing guards.
Voting for Joe Biden is as simple as voting for the good guy. Voting for Democrats up and down the ticket is voting against the mean guys. Yeah, there are some good guys over there, but I don’t hear much from them – don’t know if any of them are reasonable about abortion or guns or healthcare. But they won’t be running, and if they are they will be primaried out.
Our job is to vote the good guys in, and Old Joe the Great is one great good old guy.