We all know that Democratic President Joe Biden is too old to be running for office again. And one political commentator thinks that will be why he ends up bowing out of the race before the primaries even begin.
Enter Hugh Hewitt, a political commentator and alumni of the Ronald Reagan administration. As someone who’s been involved in politics for decades, Hewitt knows all too well what can make or break a campaign.
And according to a recent interview with Fox News host Dana Perino, Hewitt doesn’t think Biden has what it takes, so he will end up dropping out.
This prediction was part of his response to a recent puff piece put out by The New York Times about Biden and his recent fall at the US Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. If you didn’t see it, he basically tripped over his own feet on a flat surface, falling all the way to the ground this time.
Naturally, the whole incident has brought on even more questions about Biden’s age and his health, both physically and mentally.
As it stands, Biden is already the oldest sitting president in US history. Previously that title went to Ronald Reagan, who was 77 by the time he finished his second presidential term.
Biden is already 80. Should he win a re-election campaign, he’ll be 86 by the time he’s done – that is, if he makes it that far.
Per the fall, things are not looking too good for him.
Of course, this does nothing for his popularity, which is already in the toilet. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll from April, a whopping 73 percent of Americans say Biden is too old to be in office now. And that was before his latest spill.
As Hewitt sees it, Biden’s lack of popularity and increasing health issues will cause him to drop out sooner rather than later, or at least before next year’s primaries.
He says it will likely resemble then-President Lyndon Johnson’s second election run in 1968.
Like Biden, Johnson had announced that he would run for a second term. But he, like Biden, was aging, with several growing health concerns. Also, like Biden, he was considered to be “underwater” in his approval ratings.
So when the first primary arrived, and he just barely beat out his biggest opponent, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, it was enough to convince him and his staff that perhaps a second term wasn’t the best idea.
Johnson beat McCarthy by a mere six percentage points that day, and it was not enough to convince him, as an incumbent president, that he would win in the general election against Richard Nixon.
He dropped out.
Hewitt predicts a very similar thing will happen to Biden. He may continue to run even into next year a bit. But according to him, it won’t be long until he realizes he has no real chance. Besides, it’s not like there aren’t a couple of other Democrat options just waiting in the wings for such an occasion. Gavin Newsom of California, for one.
And, of course, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has already announced a run against Biden in the primaries. Interestingly enough, his father, Robert F. Kennedy Sr., similarly launched a presidential run in 1968, just days after Johnson dropped out.
As Hewitt says, history seems about ready to repeat itself.
And at this point, I’m pretty sure no one would fault Biden if he decided to bow out gracefully at this age.
