It’s one of the most time-tested tools used on the campaign trail: the age diss. Yes, it’s mean-spirited, but over the decades, it’s proven to be an incredibly effective — and historically bipartisan — attack on a political opponent.
It’s a tactic used to render one’s competitor as hopelessly out of touch, unable to handle the mission at hand.
That’s a playbook former President Donald Trump leaned on heavily this campaign cycle, repeatedly dinging President Joe Biden for his advanced years and dubbing him “Sleepy Joe Biden.” In a viral leaked clip of Trump at Mar-A-Lago after the presidential debate in June, he took things further, calling Biden a “broken down pile of crap.”
Now, with Vice President Kamala Harris, 59, at the top of the Democratic ticket, the 78-year-old Trump has gone from being the attacker on age to the attackee. Should he win in November, he will be the oldest president to ever take office.
Suddenly, it is Trump’s age that’s the issue, not Biden’s.
At her rallies, Harris uses subtle age shade, telling crowds that Trump would “return America to a dark past” and called his comments on her race the “same old show.” Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, 60, opts for a more direct diss. Trump, Walz says, is hopelessly “low energy,” “tired” and “needs to get a little rest on the weekends.”
As age politics become increasingly pertinent on the campaign trail, we’ve compiled the “greatest hits” in political memory of presidential matchups where candidates levied age-focused attacks.
Just a few weeks ago, Trump and Biden were the oldest presidential candidates in history. There’s only a three-year age gap between them, but that didn’t stop Trump from effectively presenting himself as the more energetic and youthful candidate — drumming up doubts about Biden’s fitness for office.
In March, the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. released an ad with footage of Biden stumbling down the stairs as a narrator intoned, “We can all see Joe Biden’s weakness. If Biden wins, can he even survive until 2029?”
The ad struck a nerve with the Biden campaign, and they immediately mounted their defense. Spokesperson Ammar Moussa called the ad “a sick and deranged stunt from a broke and struggling campaign.” Biden tried to shift the narrative from age to experience in a subsequent ad: “Look I’m not a young guy, that’s no secret,” he said. “But here’s the deal, I understand how to get things done for the American people.”
But by the disastrous presidential debate in June, Biden’s age had become an inescapable liability, prompting a wave of key party officials to call upon him to step down.
Biden again attempted damage control. At a campaign rally after the debate he said, “Whether young or old, here’s what I know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong. I know how to do this job.”
He pulled out of the race three weeks later.
John McCain was 72 on Election Day in 2008 when he ran for president against a baby-faced Barack Obama, who was then 47.
The Obama campaign repeatedly painted McCain as too old for office, with Obama himself declaring the senator had “lost his bearings” in a May 2008 interview.
In one campaign ad, Obama painted McCain as an out-of-touch career politician: “1982. John McCain goes to Washington. Things have changed in the last 26 years. But McCain hasn’t. He admits he still doesn’t know how to use a computer, can’t send an email.”
“It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it,” a narrator intoned in another Obama ad.
Yet another ad framed McCain as both forgetful and out-of-touch with regular Americans on issues such as housing: “When asked how many houses he owns, McCain lost track — he couldn’t remember.”
Christian Fong, a political science professor at the University of Michigan, warns there is risk to these age-related attacks. It threatens to turn off older voters, who are much more likely to turn out at the polls and donate to campaigns.
“There’s a fine line between saying ‘we need somebody who can do this job,’” Fong says, “and mocking somebody for being old.”
McCain did try to hit back, attempting to frame Obama as “inexperienced.” It didn’t work: Obama won the race with more votes than any presidential candidate in history at the time.
In 1996, President Bill Clinton was just 50 — virtually a baby for an incumbent — facing off against 73-year-old Bob Dole, a wounded World War II veteran. At times, Clinton skirted around age politics: “I don’t think Senator Dole is too old to be president. It’s the age of his ideas that I question,” he said at the Oct. 16, 1996 presidential debate. Still, in his campaign ads, he jabbed at Dole for being out of touch: “Their old ways don’t work. President Clinton’s plan — the new way.”
Dole’s age proved irresistible for late-night show comedians like Jay Leno and David Letterman: “Bob Dole’s senior aides are urging him to hurry up and make his list of potential choices for vice president,” Leno cracked. “Searching for a vice president doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is that Bob Dole has senior aides. How old are they — 90, 100? I mean, senior aides?”
Dole’s response was half-hearted at best, providing a cautionary tale for older Americans contemplating a presidential run.
Unprompted in the first presidential debate on Oct. 6, 1996, Dole said “Well, my blood pressure is lower and my weight, my cholesterol. But I will not make health an issue in this campaign.” He tried to call himself the “comeback adult,” in reference to Clinton’s image of the “comeback kid.”
He also frequently joked that for his vice presidential pick, he would put 92-year-old “Strom Thurmond on the ticket for age balance.”
Dole’s jokes didn’t land. Clinton handily won his reelection.
When 56-year-old Walter Mondale challenged 73-year-old incumbent Ronald Reagan, Reagan’s age was on full display for the nation. In the first televised presidential debate, Reagan concluded with a rambling rant that required the moderator to cut him off midway through.
In his 2010 memoir, Mondale described Reagan’s behavior as “frightening,” detailing how the former president “mangled” his trusty anecdotes, gripped onto the podium and “even started forgetting some of his lines.”
However, Reagan, a former Hollywood star used to landing his lines, was able to deftly clap back. “With regard to the age issue and everything, if I had as much makeup on as [Mondale] did, I’d have looked younger, too,” he said in the wake of his debate disaster.
Reagan even turned the issue against Mondale, in the subsequent presidential debate: “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience,” he said.
In this perhaps lies a lesson for the older candidate: wit and a sharp clapback can quickly nullify any age-related attack.
As for Mondale, he later said that his reluctance to call attention to Reagan’s age in the debate and subsequent campaigning efforts ultimately cost him the election.
Younger candidates aren’t immune from the age diss.
Back in ’88, 41-year-old Sen. Dan Quayle (R-Ind.), the Republican vice presidential nominee, was mocked endlessly by critics who thought he was too young and too dumb to be veep.
His running mate, George H.W. Bush, was forced to repeatedly defend his decision to choose a very young (for politics) running mate:
“Yes, he’s young and that’s a tremendous asset,” Bush said in an August 1988 news conference. “I’m 64 and he’s 41 and that’s good. That’s positive because his message of hope and opportunity, his record of job creation will resound and have great emphasis in those particular — in the areas of younger people.”
But at the Oct. 5, 1988, presidential debate, rather than assuaging concerns about his lack of experience, Quayle made things much worse for himself.
When the debate moderator asked Quayle why he was qualified to be vice president, he answered, “I have as much experience … as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency.”
That left a great opportunity for Quayle’s opponent, 67-year-old Democratic vice-presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen, to respond with a clapback for the ages.
“I served with Jack Kennedy,” Bensten said. “I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
Bush did end up winning the election — and Quayle did become vice president. But he was never able to shake the image of a callow and inexperienced light-weight.
Trump Is Now the ‘Old’ Candidate. It Might Matter.
Source: Viral Showbiz Pinay
0 Comments