(FiveNation.com)- The president is doing quite well, given where he was just a few months ago, according to defense and national security website 19FortyFive. Biden reportedly appears to be on the upswing, as his approval rating is up to 44%, after a period of lower ratings than any other president in the modern era, including Trump.
Democrats have been looked at in a slightly better light recently. They have passed the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which is the $740 billion package to invest in climate change, healthcare, and tax programs. Gas prices are dropping. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is pushing a deeply unpopular ban on abortion after 15 weeks.
President Biden and the White House has many times confirmed that he is fit to be president and plans to run for reelection, but it has not yet been official, as Biden has not announced his candidacy contrary to his predecessors before him. This has led analysts to question whether the octogenarian president has another run in him.
“It’s not death that’s the worrying thing about a second Biden term,” the 76-year-old leftist Robert Reich wrote. “It’s the dwindling capacities that go with aging. I’m sure the president is experiencing some diminution in the memory department. I know I am.”
“I don’t think this reflects an ‘ageist’ prejudice against those who have reached such withering heights so much as an understanding that people in their late 70s and 80s wither,” Reich added.
Biden is already 80 years old and is the oldest president ever. He will be 86 at the end of his second term and the author suggests that it would be “somewhat reckless” to elect a man at that age, who has already surpassed the U.S. life expectancy.
Democrats might reluctantly back the president if he did choose to run again, but if he chose not to, it would create chaos within the Democratic Party that tries to find its nominee. Where would that leave the unpopular Kamala Harris?
Biden once referred to himself as a bridge to the next generation, but whether that bridge lasts for one or two terms is up to him. Democratic Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan said that it is time for a “generational move” with new leadership from both Democrats and Republicans.
The President said from the very beginning he was going to be a bridge to the next generation, which is basically what I was saying,” Ryan said.
