Would Young Joe Biden Call Today’s Joe Biden Too Old?

Latest NBC Poll reports Americans don’t want old guys running for president in either party; CNN runs further with a look at the Boggs-Biden Senate race of 1972.

An NBC News poll over the weekend triggered a well-produced story tonight on CNN looking back at Joe Biden’s first race for the U.S. Senate in 1972.

Biden was 29 years old.

He opposed the incumbent, Republican Sen. Cale Boggs of Delaware, who was by these days a comparatively young 63 years old and a former governor to boot.

On the web, CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Olivia Alafriz report tonight:

“Cale doesn’t want to run, he’s lost that old twinkle in his eye he used to have,” Biden said of Boggs, who had originally wanted to retire but was persuaded to run for reelection.

Biden used his opponent’s age against him in a way that was so explicit, one local reporter dubbed his approach, “Dear old dad.”

Biden was running to become one of the youngest people ever elected to the United States Senate. Now, the president is already the oldest person ever to serve in the office of the presidency, and, if reelected, would leave office at the age of 86. That would best the next oldest president by more than 9 years if he served a full second term.

Biden ran a series of well-designed print advertisements in the Wilmington News-Journal casting Boggs as old, out of touch, and part of a generation that worried about yesterday’s problems.

Thanks to archives on Newspapers.com, we know the 1972 Biden ads looked like this example:

CNN’s on-air story used quotes from this ad series to great effect tonight.

Where young Joe Biden, age 29, once excoriated Cale Boggs, a man nearly 20 years younger than Biden is today, Biden effectively wrote the copy for ads next year casting the president as too old.

It’s clear that Americans don’t want a Trump-Biden race in 2024. And despite the powers-that-be close to the White House and the DNC, everyday Democrats — moderate centrist Democrats — don’t want Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris renominated for 2024.