If you're a Democrat looking for some good news about the upcoming presidential election, you're not going to get that here. There hasn't been much good news in months, frankly, and as we get closer to the election, Joe Biden's window of opportunity to turn things around is getting smaller, as is his ability to change the minds of voters.
But a new poll shows that one of Biden's biggest problems is one he has no control over at all: concerns about his age. These concerns are so bad that even his party's most reliable constituencies are worried. According to the latest Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll, eight out of 10 voters in battleground states believe that Biden is too old to be president.
Biden, the White House, and the mainstream media are trying hard to counter this problem by making Donald Trump's age an issue, but voters aren't buying it. The same poll found that less than half of those surveyed in battleground states believed that Trump is too old.
Related: Yeah, Biden Has a Michigan Problem
"In a sign of how top-of-mind Biden’s age and acuity are for swing-state voters, more than 1,000 poll respondents mentioned those themes even before they were asked about them directly," Bloomberg reports. "They referenced them in reply to an open-ended question about what they had seen, read, or heard about the candidate recently."
When asked about the two likely major candidates in November’s presidential election, majorities of Black voters, young voters and women labeled Biden too old. Even among those who say they plan to vote for Biden, seven in 10 said he fit that description. Voters were more likely to describe Trump as being mentally fit or in good health.
[...]
The White House has pointed to the president’s doctor’s notes, demanding schedule and foreign trips as evidence of Biden’s fitness for office. A report Wednesday from White House Physician Kevin O'Connor described Biden as "a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency."
“Biden’s age is clearly a sticky narrative that the president’s campaign is going to have to contend with,” explained Caroline Bye, a vice president at Morning Consult. Even though only a few years separate the two men, “it’s clearly stickier for Biden than it is for Trump,” she said.
Well, duh. Chronological age isn't the real issue here. The public can see the differences between the two on television.
Here's how it's hurting him. According to the poll, Trump is beating Biden in all seven battleground states that are going to decide the election: Arizona, where Trump leads by six points; Georgia, where he leads by six points; Michigan, where he leads by two points; Nevada, where he leads by six points, North Carolina, where he leads by nine points, Pennsylvania, where he leads by six points; and Wisconsin, where he leads by four points.
The latest @MorningConsult poll. pic.twitter.com/ECyhXeRT34
— Matt Margolis (@mattmargolis) February 29, 2024
Nationwide, Trump leads by five points and outside the margin of error.
Of course, Biden's age and mental health aren't the only reasons for this. The economy and immigration remain the top issues for battleground state voters, and a majority of these voters blame Biden and the Democrats for those problems.
