"Iowa Precedent" Exposes Hypocrisy of Republican Attack on Biden's Age

President's Re-Election Bid Begins with Strong Foundation

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he will seek a second term as President. It will be a hard fought campaign, regardless of who Republicans nominate to run against him, but one of the attacks Republicans are already making against Biden is likely to fall flat because of what I call the “Iowa Precedent” and the Republican hypocrisy it exposes for anyone in the party who launches the attack.

The issue - and the attack on Biden - is about his age. Republicans claim that at age 80, Biden is too old for the job. But a 2022 Republican campaign in Iowa significantly weakens that argument’s impact.

The issue is further complicated by the fact that Biden’s likely general election opponent - Republican front runner former President Donald Trump - is just three years younger than Biden, an insignificant difference.

First, I should say that I have never been a huge fan of Biden’s, although I did enthusiastically vote for him in the 2020 general election. The alternative, you’ll recall, was President Trump, the train wreck and perpetual scandal machine who occupied the presidency the previous four years.

That choice was a classic “no-brainer” for me.

Truth be told, though, in all the years Biden has been running for President, while I always liked him, he was never my first choice for the Democratic nomination.

But he is this year.

He has earned re-nomination by the Democrats and re-election by the country. Joe Biden has been a very good president - by historical standards, an excellent president, in fact.

Why do I say that?

First, the obvious: by winning the general election in 2020, Biden saved us from four more years of Donald Trump. Don’t under estimate the value of that service to the nation, and to our democracy. Seriously.

Also do not under estimate the difficulty of defeating an incumbent president - which Joe Biden did in 2020, despite all the nay-sayers who warned that he would be a weak candidate. Turns out he wasn’t a weak candidate at all.

He was a strong enough candidate to defeat an incumbent who literally would say or do anything to claim and hold the office. The Washington Post documented over 30,000 Trump lies during his presidency; there was the under-the table help he got from Russia in 2016; and then there was that little matter of the January 6 attempt to over-turn a democratic election, which he lost. So when I say Biden’s opponent - Trump - was willing to say or do anything to gain and hold onto the presidency, that is not hyperbole. It is fact.

Joe Biden defeated him in 2020. Biden is an even stronger candidate today.

Second, Biden’s accomplishments are historically significant. They were achieved under very difficult circumstances - including over an opposition that doesn’t even blink when it puts party over country, which it does frequently

Biden begins his re-election bid on an incredibly strong foundation.

Here’s a very brief, and very incomplete sampling of just some of those accomplishments:

• The fight against Covid-19: Biden’s strategy to fight Covid-19 was real and aggressive. He did not encourage the belief that Covid was a “hoax.” He spent his energy mobilizing the federal government to fight it, rather than minimizing it or trying to affix blame for it. That focus and strategy saved millions of lives, and spared millions more the grief of losing a loved one to Covid. The resulting success has been so significant that the declared Covid national emergency will be allowed to expire on May 11, less than two weeks from now.

• Covid relief stimulus checks and extension of unemployment benefits: The stimulus checks to individuals and extended unemployment benefits Biden championed pulled America out of the economic crater he inherited from Trump and saved the country from imminent economic collapse.

• The fight against global warming: America is now fighting climate change at an unprecedented level. Experts say Biden’s policies will not only slow global warming, but will also create millions of new jobs and prevent millions of premature deaths from air pollution. His policies will also pay long term dividends by speeding the movement of private industry to clean energy.

• Gun safety reform: The NRA - and its stenographers in Congress, state legislatures, and the offices of governors across the country - have blocked gun safety reform progress for decades. Biden was able to “move the needle” significantly. Stronger background checks, $750 million in incentives to strengthen state “red flag laws,” and reforms that will add persons convicted of domestic violence to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System are all part of Biden’s reforms. Much more needs to be done, but Biden’s reforms are historic, meaningful and will save lives.

Biden will tout these and other accomplishments as he campaigns for re-election. We will also hear from Republicans over the course of the campaign who will no doubt trash them all.

What we are unlikely to hear from Republicans, however, are any alternatives - any better ideas, even any other ideas. The operative word in the previous sentence is any.

You see, Republicans in Congress effectively retired years ago from being a governing party that actually comes up with policy ideas and proposals and works to advance them. I don’t know. Maybe they see themselves more as part of a Fox “News” entertainment division, tripping over each other daily to get on Fox shows and maybe even snag a post congressional career, show-hosting gig on the network.

Because they don’t seem to be very interested in doing the actual, competent work of a Congressman, Congresswoman or Senator.

They gave up on actually doing the work of governing back during the Obama years. They railed against Obama’s “Affordable Care Act” daily, promised to introduce a stronger, better alternative, and then did no such thing. Ever. They didn’t even try.

Little has changed for Republicans since then. In 2020, the national Republican Party didn’t even bother to write a party platform - something President Harry Truman once described as a political party’s “contract with the people.”

It would be nice if the coming campaign could be about who has the best ideas and the best solutions to pressing problems, but you can’t have that kind of campaign when one party has literally nothing to contribute to that debate, by their own choice.

There’s an old saying in politics: “You can’t beat somebody with nobody.”

Well, you can’t beat something with nothing either. When it comes to policy ideas and solutions to big problems, Republicans - for nearly two decades - have served up a great big “nothing sandwich” year after year.

That Republican failure to even offer alternatives to Biden’s policies and programs will also strengthen Biden’s re-election bid. It’s awfully hard to beat “something with nothing.”

So they will attack. Daily. It’s a lot easier than governing and probably more fun.

One argument Republicans have already started making against Biden is that he is too old to be president.

I don’t think that argument is going to fly for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that their own likely nominee, Donald Trump, is only three years younger than Biden. That’s not a significant difference.

Secondly, Biden has been demonstrating daily that he’s not too old to do the job - by doing it. Every day. Doing it exceptionally well, too. He’s not a flashy guy, but I think it is actually possible that Biden will be remembered by history as one of America’s great presidents. His accomplishments are that substantial.

Then there is the “Iowa Precedent” which exposes the hypocrisy that lies behind a Republican attack on Biden’s age.

In 2022, Iowa Republican and US Senator Chuck Grassley ran for re-election at age 89. Let me say that again: age 89. That’s 9 years older than Biden is today. Being a US Senator is a pretty big job. But Grassley was also the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, which under the Constitution, put him third in line for the presidency.

You do the math. Iowa Republicans - and their national Republican allies - were eager to put Grassley back in the Senate where, as long as he held the President Pro Tempore post, he would be third in line to the presidency - until he is 95 years old.

Age issue? Age issue? What age issue? Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

The age issue simply didn’t exist for Iowa Republicans in 2022, nor for the national Republican Party organizations and mega donors who rushed to Grassley’s rescue when opinion polls revealed that Iowa’s senior Senator could, indeed, possibly lose the race. Even though Grassley was third in line to be president, was 9 years older than President Biden is today, and was seeking a six year term, Republicans never said a word about his age possibly being a problem. Not even worth considering, much less mentioning.

It is hypocritical for any Republican, but especially Iowa Republicans, to attack Biden’s age. In reality, I don’t believe Biden’s age really matters to them. It’s just a handy rotten tomato they’ll throw at Biden’s re-election bid because Republicans these days have no solutions for any of the problems that concern anyone outside their party’s “Perpetually Outraged About Something Caucus.”

Barry Piatt’s weekly column is part of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative (IWC), which links some of Iowa’s best writers and thinkers directly with readers. The IWC, like this column, is a reader supported, so, please check out the columns listed below and consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to any or all of them.

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