WASHINGTON – How old is Joe Biden?
“I’m 198,” the country’s oldest president joked to a crowd of reproductive rights activists at an event in late June.
At a campaign reception in California days earlier, Biden misunderstood his advanced years while bragging about his foreign policy credentials. “That’s what I’ve done all my life – for the past 270 years,” he said.
Bada bing!
This is how Biden confronts the age issue by asking voters to give him another four years in office: by embracing it with humor.
Polls suggest Biden’s age – for the record, he’s 80 – is one of his key liabilities ahead of next year’s election. Thirty-seven percent of Democratic and independent voters in a USA TODAY poll released in June said Biden’s age makes them less likely to vote for him. Only 3% said it makes them more susceptible. A majority of 56% said it made no difference.
Biden is smart about tackling the age issue head-on — and doing it with humor, said political rhetoric expert Jennifer Mercieca.
“Humor might be the best strategy for Biden to use,” said Mercieca, an associate professor at Texas A&M. “Humour suits him well, and it suits the situation. Using humor allows him to acknowledge the problem of his age, which is a significant problem for many Americans, while minimizing it. After all, his age is his age – he can’t change his age, but he can show he’s still quick-witted (and witty) by cracking jokes.
‘Look at me,’ Biden tells voters worried about his age
The White House responded to questions about Biden’s age by highlighting his experience and accomplishments in office. Voters elected Biden in 2020 knowing that as soon as he took office, he would be the oldest president in the country.
“No president has ever come to work with more experience, and President Biden has leveraged that experience in a record of accomplishments few presidents have matched,” said the White House communications director, Ben LaBolt, in a statement.
Biden’s record, LaBolt said, “stands in stark contrast to Republicans who want to set us back decades with their MAGA policies to erode reproductive rights, ban books, and reward the wealthiest and corporations at the expense of the middle class.” “.
Biden, who would be 86 at the end of a second term, acknowledges that his age is a legitimate issue, but often offers this message to those wondering if he’s fit for office: “Look at me.”
Other politicians have also used humor to diffuse criticism – including Ronald Reagan, who was the nation’s oldest president before Biden took office. During a 1984 debate with his opponent, Democrat Walter Mondale, who was 56, Reagan responded to questions about his age with a crack: “I’m not going to make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit my adversary’s youth and inexperience for political ends.
“Biden is a seasoned enough politician to know that Reagan, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy all used humor to successfully air criticism,” said communications expert and author of a how-to guide William Bike, “Winning Political Campaigns”. .”
Humor can be an effective strategy because it can relieve pressure, diffuse difficult situations, and can be used to avoid answering tough questions, Bike said.
William Henry Harrison was the longest serving major party candidate for president before Reagan. During the 1840 campaign, when he was 67, opponents tried to say that Harrison was nothing more than a disconnected old man who preferred to “sit in his log cabin drinking hard cider” rather than running the country.
“His campaign adopted the log cabin and the cider as campaign symbols, the electorate loved it, and Harrison easily won, beating incumbent Martin Van Buren,” Bike said. “Defeating an incumbent president is incredibly difficult, but turning a negative into a positive did the trick.
More: Joe Biden uses a CPAP machine for sleep apnea. What to know about the common sleep disorder.
‘Try to be 110’
And so Biden continues to use his age as a punchline.
At the black-tie White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April, Biden assured reporters and their guests that he believed in the First Amendment, “and not just because my good friend Jimmy Madison wrote it.”
During the presentation of the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy to the Air Force Falcons in April, Biden mentioned Dwight Eisenhower’s remarks to the Air Force Academy’s first class nearly 65 years ago. “I wasn’t there,” he added, “no matter what the press says.”
And at a safer communities summit in Connecticut in June, Biden said he knows many Americans who have lost loved ones to gun violence have grown weary of the long fight for restrictions. tougher on firearms. “You’re tired – I understand,” he said. “Try to be 110 and do it again.”
Biden’s jokes about his age usually make his audience laugh. But as a political strategy, will it work?
“It’s hard to know,” Mercieca said. “People worry about his age, but those worries may not be their most important issue when evaluating Biden’s presidential performance.”
Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on Twitter @mcollinsNEWS.
More: President Biden wants to repeat his 2020 formula in the 2024 reelection bid. Here’s why it won’t be easy.
More: Hunter Biden’s drug use is back in the public eye as criminal charges may be imminent
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden makes his age a punchline. Will this affect re-election efforts?