What grade would you give President Biden's term?

[Self Esteem]

107. That was the issue...

I think a huge number of people thought Biden did not have the mental acuity to handle the job for four more years. That was a massive vulnerability for him and one no one wanted to take seriously because, gosh, Trump is old too!

But that argument never made sense. Fair or not, the perception regarding Trump's age was not the same. It wasn't that Biden was 81 years old. It was the perception that he wasn't capable of doing the work anymore.

Moreover, a large amount of 2020 Biden voters bought into that narrative too.

So, yes, it was an issue and if you didn't think it was an issue, then I question whether you were engaged and paying attention because it was a big reason the party finally nudged him out of the race.

The problem is that Biden did himself no favors. He held fewer press conferences and interviews than any of the last six presidents during their first four years - in fact, the closest to him was Bush and even Bush held nearly 100 more press conferences/interviews during his first four years than Biden.

It created a narrative that he was avoiding the media - that his team did not trust him. And they refused to counter it. Even during an election season, at the height of the summer campaign, Biden rarely held campaign rallies.

It wasn't until there was legitimate pushback after the shockingly bad debate that Biden started doing rallies, interviews and held a press conference.

But by that point, it was too late - and certainly the effort he put out there didn't change the narrative. If anything, it only reinforced the concerns.

I love Joe. I think he's been an effective president and I had no concerns about his ability to lead another four years.

But I also know that to have the opportunity to lead for four years, you've got to actually win and he was not going to win because Americans had decidedly bought into the idea (or perception) that his age was an issue.

So, yes, going back to the whole main point of this exchange: age absolutely was not a meaningless issue.

Age is more than just a number. As I said, Biden's problem with voters wasn't that he was 81. It was that they felt he didn't have the mental acuity to do the job. For whatever reason, that never stuck with Trump. The poll I linked to shows that. 55% of Americans disagreed with the comment that Trump was too old to be an effective president. For Biden? Just 25%.

Those were devastating numbers and shows just how meaningful the issue was.

Perception is reality in politics and the perception of Biden is not good. Maybe history will change that but he's leaving office with the lowest approval rating of any out-going president since Truman (outside Nixon, who resigned). Some of that absolutely is due to his age the belief he's too old.