Robert Reich wonders if Joe Biden is the best presidential candidate for Democrats in 2024
24 January 2023
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Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich is posing a compelling question and offering a detailed argument to support his assessment.
In his latest piece published by The Guardian, Reich is asking whether or not President Joe Biden is a viable Democratic candidate for re-election in 2024. Reich highlighted five questions that might help Democrats answer that question.
"Has Biden done a good job so far?" Reich began as he went on to answer his own question noting the positive aspects of Biden's leadership as well as the drawbacks and challenges he's faced during his presidency.
"My answer is, by and large, yes," Reich said. "He wasn’t able to achieve nearly everything he aimed for when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress, but Democrats held only a razor’s edge majority against an increasingly rabid Republican party, and Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema put up additional roadblocks."
He went on to ask whether or not Biden should run to be re-elected in 2024. According to Reich, he should as he noted rare circumstances when one shouldn't run for re-election.
"Almost certainly," he wrote, adding, "Unless a president commits such heinous acts in the first term that their party can’t possibly support his re-election, an incumbent president always has the prerogative of running for a second term."
Reich also noted the adage of "if not Biden, then who?" — but he explained why this is actually a "trick question."
"This is a trick question because as long as Biden says he’ll be the Democratic nominee, other highly qualified Democrats are unlikely to identify themselves," he wrote. "There’s still time for them to do so if Biden steps aside."
But could Biden beat former President Donald Trump again? Although Biden managed to defeat Trump in 2020, there have been concerns about his age. According to Reich, the factors against Biden could be problematic.
"This is a very tough call," he admitted. "Last year a New York Times/Siena College poll showed nearly two-thirds of Democrats didn’t want Biden to run again, and concerns about his age ranked at the top of the list. Younger people were even more adamant that Biden is too old."
Lastly, Reich raised questions about the potential impact of Biden's age.
"I’ve had the privilege of working with four presidents, and I can tell you from my experience and observation that the job of the American presidency is physically and mentally grueling, even for people in their 40s, 50s and 60s," he noted.
Reich concluded, "If re-elected, Biden would be 86 at the end of his second term. That’s deeply worrying, given what we know about the natural decline of the human brain and body. This isn’t an 'ageist' prejudice against those who have reached such withering heights so much as an understanding that people in their mid-80s do wither."