As Twitchy reported earlier, the Presidential Greatness Project, made up of presidential scholars and historians, named President Biden the 14th best president in all of American history. Note they said "all" of American history, or Biden could probably have toppled Abraham Lincoln from the top spot. In modern history, though, Biden came in behind both Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
Former CNN journalist and ace debate moderator John Harwood just found a piece in Slate that disagrees with that ranking, calling Biden's presidency "the most successful in modern history."
This comes in a piece from Slate by Dahlia Lithwick, which tells us the "real" way to think about Biden's age this run. "Everyone needs to stop freaking out about Biden's age immediately," reads the tweet. Is there something we missed? Why is everyone talking about Biden's age all of a sudden?
This is actually the second time around for this news cycle. Last spring, the New York Times enraged readers by doing a piece on people's brains at age 81. The Daily Beast published a piece entitled, "Joe Biden Is Old. Get Over It."
But now Biden's age is an issue again, and it's the media's fault for running with Special Counsel Robert Hur's hit job on Biden. Never mind that it's the reason he didn't recommend charges against Biden for willfully retaining classified documents in his garage.
Harwood shared some of the highlights of Lithwick's piece:
no one has explained the mindless (and pointless) irresponsibility of current press coverage as well as this from @Dahlialithwick,
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) February 19, 2024
so it requires a 🧵 https://t.co/v87c0aGgyY
It's the media's fault for noticing.
"ask yourself why Biden, who is stipulated #Old, has managed to helm the most successful presidency in modern history.
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) February 19, 2024
"the reason: he has for the most part surrounded himself with experts, genuine scientists, respected economists, effective governmental actors and advisers."
Genuine scientists, like John Kerry, John Podesta, and Bill Nye the Science Guy.
"Governance is not an action film.
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) February 19, 2024
"There is no psychodrama w/someone in a black T-shirt mincing along the ledge of a skyscraper, ninja-kicking his way down to the stairwell, where he karate-chops the baddies and then crawls his way into a vault where the nuclear reactor sits."
"No.
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) February 19, 2024
"Despite our fascination with the Great Man theory of American lawmaking, the presidency is an office that largely turns on staffing, planning, negotiation, and execution.
"Joe Biden doesn’t have to remember every single detail himself - he has to use his judgment."
We've seen him use his judgment on Day One of his presidency when he canceled all of the programs securing the border.
Harwood goes on and basically cuts-and-pastes the entire piece in an X thread, so we're going to skip ahead to the end.
one last point
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) February 19, 2024
some commentators will say they agree w/Dahlia, but Democrats could somehow still push Biden aside to
field a younger/stronger candidate.
has anyone who knows the first thing about winning presidential elections credibly explained just how that could
happen?
no
It sounds like Lithwick isn't denying that Biden is an elderly man with a poor memory — it's just that when you're surrounded by such competent people, you don't need to remember every little detail, like when you were vice president.
You have to try and be this stupid.
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) February 19, 2024
I’m going to bookmark this thread so I come back to it whenever I need a good laugh.
— David Gray (@Bad_DavidG) February 19, 2024
Rutabaga is not only old but demented and stupid, with the functioning brain of an amoeba.
— Larry Schweikart (@LarrySchweikart) February 19, 2024
If two wars, open borders, millions of illegals processed into the country and high inflation is considered a success I'd hate to what failure looks like.
— Mike (@Leftylipshits) February 19, 2024
Everything she says about Hur and the report are intentionally false, so maybe start with that?
— Daniel Reid (@danielp_reid) February 19, 2024
The Regime Defense Propaganda Mill really need to take a month off & recalibrate, bc y'all are just embarrassing yourselves at this point 😂
— PNW Selina 🗽🇺🇸 (@PNWSelina) February 19, 2024
No one's buying this crap anymore.
— TrueWest (@Trestresjolie) February 19, 2024
The media pushed for the 25th Amendment to be invoked over 600 times while Trump was in office.
— NewsBusters (@newsbusters) February 16, 2024
Where are the calls for the 25th Amendment now that we have a president whose mental capacity has been questioned by his own DOJ? pic.twitter.com/3NUS2V2diX
The libs are so outraged at the media — including Harwood's former employer — for even entertaining the idea that Biden's age might be an issue for voters. His age is the "but her emails" of the 2024 campaign.
Lithwick lost all credibility from the jump: Biden had managed to helm "the most successful presidency in modern history." Oh yeah? Why not list some of his accomplishments, then? Bidenomics?
1. He's is fine
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) February 19, 2024
2. GOP are pouncing on his stutter
3. He seemed confused because he's tired
4. "He's' the most successful President in history because he surrounds himself with experts, genuine scientists, respected economists, effective governmental actors & advisers" https://t.co/M7CJYVRyCX pic.twitter.com/b2QgN76e5d
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