What Biden Can Learn From Another Elderly Statesman, Ronald Reagan | Opinion

When Ronald Reagan ran for a second term in 1984, he was 73 years old—and, at that time, the oldest presidential candidate in U.S. history.

Biden eclipsed that record in 2020, turning 78 just two weeks after the general election. And now he's done it again with the announcement of his bid for a second term. Already the oldest president in U.S. history, Biden would, if reelected, be 82 on Inauguration Day and 86 by the time he leaves office.

While Biden's age will no doubt be a factor in the 2024 presidential campaign, history demonstrates that older presidents like Biden can turn the "too old" attacks of their opponents into a political asset. There are striking parallels between the challenges Reagan encountered in 1984 and what Biden will need to do to win reelection in 2024.

These obstacles extend well beyond their age. In an April 1983 Gallup Poll, U.S. voters gave Reagan a dismal 43 percent job approval rating and, when asked who they would support if the election were held that day, picked Walter Mondale (who was 53 at the time) over Reagan by 6 percentage points. FiveThirtyEight currently puts Biden's average approval rating in the Reagan zone at 43 percent. According to reporting from Politico, the president is running neck-and-neck against both former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and a new AP-NORC poll shows that only 26 percent of overall respondents want the president to run in 2024. Biden isn't exactly performing like a frontrunner.

But then again, neither was Reagan. During his first term, he had to contend with a lagging economy and high unemployment in what has become known as the "Reagan Recession." Abroad, the ongoing ideological and nuclear contest between the United States and the Soviet Union and the political unrest in El Salvador and Grenada had the U.S. public worried that the Cold War would soon become hot.

Today, Biden faces record-level inflation numbers, high interest rates, and predictions of a looming economic recession. The ongoing war in Ukraine and escalating tensions between the United States and China have many wondering whether we are entering a New Cold War. There is no shortage of head-clutching worries, both domestic and global, to drag Biden's candidacy down. But Reagan's playbook shows age doesn't have to be one of them.

When criticism about Reagan's age surfaced throughout his reelection bid, the president responded directly. During the second debate with Democratic candidate Walter Mondale (and after a lackluster, meandering performance in their first matchup), Reagan famously bounced back, and quipped that he would not "exploit, for political purposes, [his] opponent's youth and inexperience." With a single line (and a smile), the president, and master of the political stage, inferred that age was a marker of steady, solid leadership—just what the country needed for another four years.

But the Reagan-Bush 1984 campaign adopted another strategy to showcase Reagan's presidential leadership to the U.S. public. To combat the perception that the president was too old or out of touch for the job, Reagan advisers designed and produced made-for-TV events that spotlighted the president being and acting as the president—traveling abroad to meet with world leaders, presiding over ceremonies that marked significant moments in U.S. historical memory, and signing bills into law.

Their ultimate goal, wrote one campaign adviser, was to create "ideal image" events that would showcase what Reagan had accomplished during his first term and demonstrate that "the president delivers on his promises [and] his leadership produces results."

They gambled that if they could remind voters why they chose Reagan to replace Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter at a moment of economic turmoil and global unrest, he would cruise to reelection. And they were right.

When Biden announced his 2020 bid for the White House, he framed the election as a "battle for the soul of this nation," a struggle "over the core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy." The choice, he argued, was stark. And after four tumultuous years of a Trump presidency, the U.S. electorate selected a candidate who built a career in public service, first as a U.S. senator and then as vice president, and cast a vision for the country that "we can rebuild together."

Four years later, the U.S. public will get to decide whether Biden has done what he said he would do. If Biden's team were to take a line from Reagan's campaign playbook, they might underscore how the president's credentials, coupled with his first-term accomplishments, display seasoned leadership that can only be gained through time and proven through experience.

And as Biden launches his 2024 campaign four years to the day of his 2019 pledge to help the nation "remember who we are," he might decide to follow in another elder statesman's footsteps and remind voters of the hard won experience that comes with age.

Allison M. Prasch is assistant professor of communication arts at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She studies U.S. presidential rhetoric.