Back in 1984, Ronald Reagan’s political advisers had a nickname for their candidate. No, it wasn’t “The Gipper,” a favorite Reagan moniker based on his starring role as George Gipp in the 1940 film “Knute Rockne: All American.” Instead, they liked to refer to Reagan as the “O and W” candidate, shorthand for the oldest and the wisest.
At age 73, Reagan was the oldest candidate ever to seek reelection to the presidency. Reagan’s advisers claimed he was also the wisest one, given his experience as a two-term governor of California, his White House years and his long apprenticeship in the conservative movement.
Debating his Democratic opponent, former vice president Walter Mondale, Reagan joked, “I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”
Today, Joe Biden is the O and W candidate. Nearly a decade older than Reagan, Biden is seeking another term, which, if successful, would make him the oldest president to leave office at age 86.
Yet, Biden seems exhilarated by the job — traveling to two war-torn countries, Israel and Ukraine, both grueling, unprecedented trips. He relishes holding the nation’s top job after a long apprenticeship serving as a U.S. Senator for 36 years and vice president for eight. Finally the person in charge, Biden has used his experience to accomplish far more than even his 2020 opponents thought possible.
In just two years, he signed the American Rescue Plan, the Chips and Science Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the PACT Act and the Inflation Reduction Act to name a few. These........