Americans aren’t crazy about presidential election rematches. There hasn’t been one since 1956 when Adlai Stevenson lost for a second time to General President Dwight Eisenhower. They were commonplace in the 19th Century: Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison split two elections and on and on and on.

Republicans are more likely to run defeated nominees again: Dewey in 1948 and Nixon in 1968. Split decision.

I feel a musical reference coming on:

Then there are the candidates who ran and lost their party’s nomination and returned to win the prize: Reagan in 1980 and Biden in 2020.

It’s increasingly likely that the 2024 election will be a rematch of 2020. Nobody in the GOP has the stomach to do what it takes to destroy the Indicted Impeached Insult Comedian. He’ll only lose the nomination if someone takes a political buzzsaw to him, but his foes are afraid of alienating the base. Instead, they should be afraid of being seen with MAGA maggots like Marge Greene and The Grotesque Dr. Gosar.

President Biden announced his reelection bid yesterday with this video:

It’s an effective video that stresses the Biden record and his support for FREEDOM in its many diverse forms including abortion rights. As Senator Professor Elizabeth Warren is fond of saying,  abortion is on the ballot. It’s a subject that leaves Republicans tongue-tied and unable to speak coherently. They wanted Roe and Casey overruled:

That’s the late Justice Harry Blackmun who wrote the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade. Nobody ever questioned Harry Blackmun’s ethics. Can you hear me, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and John Roberts? They’re deaf to everyone but the top 1%.

Back to the 2024 campaign.

President Biden’s flaw as a candidate is his age. It’s immutable, nothing that can be done. He’s only three years older than the Kaiser of Chaos and only one year older that the woman who wrote this song:

I, too, wish Joey B. Shark were 10-15 years younger but he’s not. He’s still the right candidate in 2024. If there’s a rematch, age will recede in importance as an issue. They’ll try and make it one but mentioning age will only remind voters that both candidates are geezers.

Ageism is one of the last publicly acceptable forms of prejudice. A younger candidate could play the age card. This guy cannot:

I’m glad the campaign video featured Vice President Harris. Some wealthy bedwetters wanted her replaced on the ticket a few months back. Sanity reigned and that foolish idea seems to have gone away. As I said in a post about that Veep Chatter:

Replacing Harris on the ticket would offend the most important part of the Democratic coalition: Black women. They’ve wanted a seat at the table for a long time and now that they have it, they won’t abandon the trailblazing Veep.

I love how Team Biden has embraced the Dark Brandon meme. They’re not pretending that the president isn’t old and totally uncool by 2023 standards. They should let Biden be Biden. He’ll make some gaffes, but his warmth, humanity, and decency will carry the day.

Joe may not be cool but he’s a classic. Embrace the uncool, Mr. President. You don’t have to be cool to attract young voters, just genuine.

I’ve suggested many campaign theme songs over the years, usually sarcastically. This time, in earnest; a song by a Scottish rock band in which they embrace the uncool, Not Where It’s At. Dig these lyrics: “I don’t have my finger on the pulse of my generation. I just got my hand on my heart I know no better location.”

How Bidenesque is that?

Embrace the uncool, Mr. President.

The last word goes to Del Amitri: