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(CNN) 80-year-old President Joe Biden has had to face questions about his age and mental acumen as he prepares to begin his presidential re-election campaign.
In 1972, then-29-year-old Delaware local senator Biden was at odds with 63-year-old incumbent Republican Senator Cale Boggs, a former two-term governor and state senator.
Biden said of Boggs, who originally wanted to retire but was persuaded to run for re-election, “Kale doesn’t want to run. He’s lost the old luster he once had.”
Biden used his opponent’s age against him in such a blatant way that one local reporter called his approach “Dear Dad.”
Biden was the youngest person ever to be elected to the Senate. Today, the president is already the oldest person to ever hold the presidency and, if re-elected, will retire at the age of 86. Second term.
A president’s age is “everywhere” in nearly every conversation, CNN reported in February, but the idea was challenged by a White House spokesman.
White House press secretary Andrew Bates told CNN that Biden had made “historic progress” and was “enthusiastically received by young Americans.” Police reformed executive orders to help crack down on neighborhoods, his actions to decriminalize marijuana, and health insurance for more Americans than ever before. ”
In 1972, Biden’s advertisements in local newspapers and radio ran the sentence, “He understands what is going on today.” The ad targeted Boggs’ age by addressing historical topics from the “generation” of Boggs. For example, Joseph his Stalin ruled Russia, jazz his musicians used heroin, polio his vaccine development, taxes from the 1940s, etc.
“The generation of Cale Boggs dreamed of eradicating polio, the generation of Joe Biden dreamed of overcoming heroin,” read a newspaper ad. “The unfair tax for Cale Boggs was the poll tax of 1948. The unfair tax for Joe Biden was the income tax of 1972,” read another article.
One radio ad targeted Boggs for focusing too much on past threats from Russia while ignoring domestic issues such as crime.
“One of the biggest differences between Cale Boggs and Joe Biden is what they worry about,” said the radio ad. I had visions of Russian soldiers in the Joe Biden era, Americans have visions of American criminals in the streets, Joe Biden understands what’s going on today .”
The approach drew backlash from Delaware Republican Senator William Ross, with whom Biden would work closely over the next 30 years, according to The News Journal and media comments at the time.
Biden eventually won that race with the Associated Press declaring, “Biden stressed age to beat Boggs.”
As Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Norm Rockman wrote, “The new campaign strategy, mandated by Biden himself, softens the harsh tab banging and finger pointing, effectively turning ‘Dear Dad might have been right.’ I use the ‘maybe’ approach of his time–and I love him–but things are different now.
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