Joe Biden is NOT Too Old To Run Again

Andy Ostroy
2 min readFeb 10
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I’m growing frustrated and weary of all this “Biden Shouldn’t Run Again” nonsense. Ya know, because he’s too old. That’s right, we’re supposed to accept that this unprecedentedly productive, successful first-term president — who at his State of the Union address Tuesday night delivered the strongest, most passionate, flawless speech of his career — somehow achieved it all despite being a weak, feeble old coot.

An example of this shocking ageism is Michelle Goldberg’s NY Times op-ed this week in which she writes “Biden has been a great president. He’s made good on an uncommon number of campaign promises. He should be celebrated on Tuesday. But he should not run again.”

She cites his historic diplomatic, economic and legislative accomplishments but then summarily reduces them to a pile of rubble with misguided judgements about his supposed diminished mental acuity. Like stumbling over words, which she claims is “a tendency that can’t be entirely explained by his stutter”. She warns of another grueling campaign and cites polls suggesting Democrats want someone else, the latter of course ignoring the countless polls over the years that have been embarrassingly incorrect.

Goldberg’s op-ed is illogical, irresponsible and self-destructive. “Great” first-term presidents like Biden most definitely should run again. No matter how old they are.

Make no mistake: the man we saw stand before us this week for 72-minutes was fired up, full of energy and demonstrating more mental and physical stamina than many politicians half his age.

Biden effectively touted his massive achievements, aggressively defended Social Security and Medicare and slyly forced Republicans’ hand on this issue and deftly handled his rude, juvenile MAGA hecklers like Marjorie Taylor Greene with the skills of a seasoned stand-up comic schooling a bunch of drunken rowdy college kids.

No, this was not a weak, feeble old coot.

President Biden made it perfectly clear Tuesday night: not only are the critics wrong about him but, yes, with his newly minted “Finish the Job” mission statement, he’s definitely running again.

Andy Ostroy

Director, producer, podcaster, writer, resistor, non-profit-supporter of women filmmakers