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      The Tiny, Tight-Lipped Circle of Aides Guiding Biden 2024

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      They rarely give on-the-record interviews. Only two are on Twitter. But they will be the main force behind the president’s political strategy.When President Biden announced his re-election campaign and its top two staff members this week, the names of his closest and longest-serving advisers were not included.A small circle of senior officials, some who have known Mr. Biden for longer than many of the soon-to-be-hired campaign staff members have been alive, will guide the president’s political strategy both in the White House and on the campaign trail.None of them have significant public personas. Of the six, only Jennifer O’Malley Dillon and Jeff Zients, the White House chief of staff, have active Twitter accounts. But it was members of this group who began making phone calls last weekend to offer positions on Mr. Biden’s campaign, only some of which have been announced.Officials in the White House and on his nascent campaign insist the campaign manager, Julie Chávez Rodríguez, will be empowered to run Mr. Biden’s re-election bid. But an array of Democratic officials who have been involved in ramping up his 2024 effort have made clear that many major decisions will continue to be made by the president’s cadre of top advisers.According to two Biden advisers, the White House staff members who have been involved in rolling out the campaign are Ms. O’Malley Dillon, Mr. Zients, Anita Dunn, Mike Donilon, Steve Ricchetti and Bruce Reed.Here is a look at the people at the center of the president’s political universe who will help guide his re-election bid.Jeff ZientsMr. Biden named Mr. Zients as his second chief of staff in January after Mr. Zients oversaw the administration’s Covid vaccination program. He has ensured regular bagel deliveries to the West Wing from Call Your Mother, a Washington chain in which he is a part owner. (Four days into his presidency, Mr. Biden directed his motorcade to stop at one of the shops so his son Hunter could pick up an order.)Jeff Zients during his tenure overseeing the Biden administration’s Covid vaccination program.Pete Marovich for The New York TimesMr. Zients has sat in on interviews with and deliberations about potential campaign staff members, and he has a regular political meeting with Mr. Biden.When he become Mr. Biden’s chief of staff, Mr. Zients had a reputation as one of Washington’s top Democratic problem-solvers. He was called in to the Obama administration to fix the health care website after widespread technical problems in 2013. In 2021, Mr. Biden tapped him to run the coronavirus response.Anita DunnIn 2020, when Mr. Biden limped to a fourth-place finish in Iowa — and was days away from coming in fifth in New Hampshire — he handed effective control of his campaign to Ms. Dunn, a veteran Washington operator who began her career interning in President Jimmy Carter’s administration and rose to become Mr. Biden’s most senior communications adviser.Anita Dunn, a longtime Washington operator, helped found SKDK, a major public affairs and political consulting firm.Stefani Reynolds for The New York TimesMs. Dunn also had senior roles with Democrats including President Barack Obama. And she helped found SKDK, a major public affairs and political consulting firm that employs a stable of Democratic operatives. (She has faced questions over the years about the intersection of her government work and the firm’s business dealings.)She is married to the prominent lawyer Bob Bauer — a partnership that in 2009 led Newsweek to call them Washington’s new power couple. Mr. Bauer is also a close Biden adviser who has served as a lawyer for Mr. Biden.“Anita’s default is action,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who served as White House communications director for Mr. Obama. “In a party of hand-wringers that Democrats can be, she has a unique leadership style that helps propel movement forward.”Steve RicchettiMr. Ricchetti, who served as Mr. Biden’s vice-presidential chief of staff, is a longtime Biden confidant.He has often acted as a conduit among Mr. Biden, donors and members of Congress. (Soon after Mr. Biden took office, Mr. Ricchetti’s brother drew scrutiny for his work as a lobbyist; Mr. Ricchetti has also worked as a lobbyist.)“Steve is the best I’ve seen at managing relationships and being an open ear to a lot of people,” said former Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, who served as a senior adviser to Mr. Biden at the White House and as a national co-chair of his 2020 campaign. “Stevie knows the interactions of the Congress and the White House.”Asked whether he could compare any top Biden aides to characters on the TV series “The West Wing,” Mr. Richmond noted that Josh Lyman, the show’s fast-talking, hard-charging deputy White House chief of staff, “kept scores.”“Maybe Stevie to Josh,” he said. “He has a long memory.”Mike DonilonOther than Mr. Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, and Jill Biden, the first lady, Mr. Donilon has worked with Mr. Biden the longest of anyone in his inner circle.An adviser to Mr. Biden since the early 1980s, the low-key Mr. Donilon is a regular presence at Georgetown University’s basketball games — even during the team’s recent stretch of down years. (A Rhode Island native, Mr. Donilon has two degrees from the Washington university.)He comes from a family accomplished in politics. One brother, Tom Donilon, worked in the Clinton and Obama administrations. Another, Terrence Donilon, is the chief spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston. Mike Donilon’s sister-in-law, Catherine Russell, was Dr. Biden’s chief of staff when Mr. Biden was vice president.Mr. Donilon, who served as Mr. Biden’s chief strategist during the 2020 campaign, is a senior adviser now and travels frequently with the president.“These are folks who are very close to the president and are the reason why he is president,” Cristóbal Alex, a veteran of Mr. Biden’s 2020 campaign and White House, said of Mr. Donilon and other top Biden advisers. “That sort of core leadership will play an incredibly important role in his election.”Jennifer O’Malley DillonA relatively late addition to the Biden inner circle, Ms. O’Malley Dillon had senior roles on both of Mr. Obama’s presidential campaigns and was the campaign manager on Beto O’Rourke’s 2020 bid for the White House before Ms. Dunn recruited her to take over what was then a shoestring Biden presidential campaign.Ms. O’Malley Dillon became campaign manager just as the pandemic hit. She was responsible for transforming a thin operation into a serious general-election apparatus, and doing so as the world shut down, managing the bid of a then-septuagenarian candidate who would spend much of the rest of the campaign off the trail.“Jen has great political instincts, and I’ve never seen anybody get the buses and trains to move on time like she does,” Mr. Richmond said.Known for her skills as a political organizer and for her late-night habit during the campaign of returning phone calls while riding her Peloton stationary bicycle, Ms. O’Malley Dillon became the first woman to manage a winning Democratic presidential campaign and is now a White House deputy chief of staff.Bruce ReedLike Mr. Biden, Mr. Reed has spent his career as a centrist Democrat in Washington. He worked for years for the Democratic Leadership Council, which aimed to focus the party on the political middle and had significant influence during the Clinton administration.The co-author of a book with Rahm Emanuel and the onetime author of a daily column for Slate — in 2009, he called for the Baseball Hall of Fame to “put every player found to have used steroids onto the permanently ineligible list” — Mr. Reed worked for Al Gore and Bill Clinton before becoming Mr. Biden’s chief of staff during the Obama administration.An Idaho native whose affection for his home state extended to his personal email handle, Mr. Reed is Mr. Biden’s top policy adviser and travels with him on domestic trips. More

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      Biden’s Highest Hurdle Isn’t Age, It’s Passion

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      Joe Biden is officially running for re-election, and his candidacy will put some Democratic voters — those not only skittish about his age but also about his passion for policy — in a vise: They recognize the threat from the leading Republican candidates, but they’ve been underwhelmed by Biden, who’d be 82 at the start of a second term.The age question is a major concern for Biden, according to political advisers I’ve spoken to recently — and according to the chatter on cable news and online. And the sense that he has underwhelmed is particularly problematic for Biden when it comes to young voters. According to an Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School poll of 18-to 29-year-olds released Monday, just 36 percent of young Americans approve of Biden’s job performance. That number has steadily dropped over the course of his presidency.Though young voters were only 17 percent of the 2020 electorate, they’ll probably be a key to another Biden win, since he won about 60 percent of the 18-to-29 vote last time around. Younger voters can also be barometers of how much a candidate’s passion factors into his appeal.I reached out to several voting rights advocates and political organizers to discuss Biden’s bid, and the overall impression settles somewhere between cautious optimism and dampened enthusiasm, not so much about Biden’s age, but how voters, including younger voters, look at his policy priorities. As Clifford Albright, the co-founder and executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund, told me, although younger voters would generally like to see younger candidates, “the age thing can be overcome if you’re talking about the right issues.”Albright mentioned the presidential candidacies of Senator Bernie Sanders, who’s about a year older than Biden. As a contender for the Democratic nomination, he said, Sanders was held aloft by young voters because he vociferously championed issues that they cared about. They felt that he was fighting for them.It’s on those issues where some activists seemed to think Biden had left an opening for voter disappointment. They weren’t naïve about the structural obstacles in the way Congress operates that made legislative progress difficult, if not impossible, but they simply didn’t believe that Biden went down fighting on some of the initiatives that younger Democratic voters cared about most.One that sticks in their craws, undoubtedly because they deal with voting rights, was a sense that Biden didn’t fight hard enough for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.Nse Ufot, the founder of the New South Super PAC, chastised Biden for speaking about the voting rights bill at the Atlanta University Center — home to four historically Black colleges and universities, in a state where both senators were already committed to voting for the law — ahead of a push to the pass the bill, knowing there weren’t enough votes to pass it. Biden “should have been in West Virginia,” said Ufot, he “should have been in Phoenix, Ariz., because those are the people who need to hear it.”She said it seemed almost like a coach coming to the sideline to console a team in defeat even though there was still time left on the clock and the game was still being played. It just didn’t feel like an all-out effort to go down swinging.Ufot, channeling the rapper Ice Cube, said of Biden: “I need you to put your back into it!”But both Ufot and Albright considered the hesitation about Biden’s age a bit of a red herring. For them, policy and voter engagement — and the time and resources put into both — will be more determinative.On the policy front, Albright believes that the polling for Democrats, particularly in the fall of 2022, ticked up not only because the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, but also because Biden finally took action on student loan forgiveness, the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act with the most significant climate provisions in American history and the passage of relatively narrow, but still significant, federal gun legislation. A half year later, these Democratic wins can feel like old news, but they were agenda items that Democratic voters, including young voters, cared deeply about.So if Biden made gains on some of the issues that young voters care about, why are the activists still concerned?Biden’s challenge when it comes to younger voters isn’t so much his age, but his posture, they say. He was elected in part as an antidote to the chaos of the Donald Trump years. But, as Albright sees it now, “some of that stability that he offers, some of that comfort or whatever that he offers some folks, that has actually been, from our perspective, part of the problem.”“When you’re in a moment like what we’re in,” Albright said, “you have to recognize that this is not a time for the normal, the traditional, the nostalgia or whatever, and that you need something different.”Ufot buttressed that sentiment more bluntly, saying, “People are trying to appear to be elder statesmen when the country is,” in effect, on “fire.”In a certain sense, Biden’s age becomes a proxy for other dissatisfactions voters may have with him. Trump is just four years younger than Biden, but he has convinced his followers that his venom is a marker of virility.Biden has to demonstrate more fight for more progressive policies. Even if he loses the battles, he has to show the scars. Positioning himself as the last line of defense against the return of Trump or the rise of an equally dangerous Republican isn’t sufficient.He has to show that he is more bulldog than bulwark.As Tram Nguyen, co-executive director of the New Virginia Majority, put it, in the next year and a half leading to the election, “I think you’re going to see more — at least I hope we’re going to see more — of that fight, because I think at the end of the day, voters want to vote for someone who they believe will fight for what is needed.”The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and Instagram. More

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      Biden Says He Has a ‘Job to Finish,’ Downplaying Concerns Over His Age

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      The president also said that he was not the only Democrat who could beat Donald J. Trump, but that “I know the danger he presents to our democracy.”WASHINGTON — President Biden on Wednesday dismissed polling that suggests Americans are not interested in seeing a rematch between him and former President Donald J. Trump, saying he has a “job to finish” in bolstering the economy and reasserting U.S. leadership abroad.Mr. Biden, who is hosting President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea in Washington this week, was asked by a reporter during a Rose Garden news conference whether he believed he was the only Democrat who could defeat Mr. Trump.“I may not be the only one, but I know him well and I know the danger he presents to our democracy,” Mr. Biden said of his predecessor. He added that he probably would have decided to run again even if Mr. Trump had not entered the race.Recent polls show that Democrats are deeply ambivalent about Mr. Biden running again. They are broadly pleased with his job performance, but in addition to concerns about the president’s age, they want to see him clear the way for a younger generation of Democratic leaders to step up.Mr. Biden also was asked how he would respond to people who have reservations about his age. (Mr. Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term.)Mr. Biden said that he respected their concerns — “I can’t even say, the number doesn’t register with me,” he remarked at one point — but he said he was optimistic about his re-election message.“I respect them taking a hard look at it,” Mr. Biden said. “I take a hard look at as well. I took a hard look at it before I decided to run. And I feel good. I feel excited about the prospects.”In the Rose Garden, Mr. Biden made a case for extending his role as a “bridge” to a younger generation, as he has portrayed himself. He said that Mr. Trump had frayed America’s most meaningful global relationships, and that the national debt had ballooned under Mr. Trump’s leadership.Mr. Trump, who is 76, announced his candidacy late last year. He has spent the past 24 hours trying to rouse his donors and supporters by attacking Mr. Biden. (“Joe Biden couldn’t even deliver a REAL SPEECH to announce his presidential campaign,” read an email signed by Mr. Trump and sent to supporters on Wednesday morning.)Mr. Trump is under criminal indictment by the Manhattan district attorney, a Democrat, on charges of covering up hush money paid to a porn actress. He also is being investigated by the Justice Department for instigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and illegally refusing to turn over classified documents.As Mr. Biden spoke on Wednesday, House Republicans were preparing to vote on a bill that would pass legislation to raise the debt ceiling while cutting domestic spending — a measure that would be dead on arrival in the Democrat-controlled Senate. As part of his re-election message, the president has tried to make the case to Americans that his experience (which has come with, yes, age) could be beneficial to navigating the collision course that lies ahead with congressional Republicans over debt spending.Mr. Biden also said his experience would be helpful on the world stage.“There’s still a contest between autocracies and democracies. And we’re the leading democracy in the world,” Mr. Biden said. “And it’s something I know a fair amount about, something I care about.” More

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      Freedom and the American Flag Dominate First Ad for Biden

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      The ad, paid for by the Democratic National Committee, tries to take back the mantle of patriotism often claimed by Republicans, leaning heavily on images of the flag and of the Capitol riot.The first television advertisement for President Biden’s re-election campaign aired on Wednesday, an opening salvo that leans heavily on images of the American flag, warns of domestic threats to democracy and repeatedly invokes the word “freedom.”The Democratic National Committee bought time for the ad, a 90-second spot called “Flag,” to run nationally on MSNBC and to run locally on stations in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Mr. Biden formally entered the race on Tuesday.The ad purchase is small, a largely symbolic outlay in parts of battleground states and on a liberal news network. The D.N.C. said it was the first of two ads in a two-week, seven-figure purchase.But its content signals an attempt to reclaim the mantle of patriotism — and the protection of democratic values, stability and rights — for Democrats, even as Republicans accuse them of pursuing a radical liberal agenda. The ad also portrays Mr. Biden as Americans’ best defender against “an extreme movement that seeks to overturn elections, ban books and eliminate a woman’s right to choose.”“In small towns and big cities, we raise our heads, our eyes, our hearts, for America, for the idea of this great country,” the ad says. “Joe Biden is running for re-election to make certain that the sun will not set on this flag. The promise of American democracy will not break.”The content and tone of the ad echo Democrats’ messaging in Wisconsin before its high-stakes judicial election early this month. Voters there overwhelmingly supported a liberal candidate for the State Supreme Court who openly backed abortion rights and cast the election as a battle for protection of “rights and freedoms.”A top Democratic super PAC, Priorities USA, also began a six-figure digital ad campaign in the same six battleground states on Wednesday, the group said. It added that it planned to spend $75 million on advertising in those states.The word “freedom” appears at least seven times in the D.N.C. ad — including the freedom for children to be safe from gun violence and the “freedom for women to make their own health care decisions.” Like much other messaging from Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders, the ad does not use the word “abortion.”Former President Donald J. Trump — the front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024 — is also not mentioned by name, but the ad does feature video of his supporters at the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.The American flags that dotted the first 16 seconds of the ad — placed above suburban houses, fluttering atop the Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington, set against a backyard soccer game — give way to “Trump 2020” flags being waved by angry supporters. More

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      How Much Do Voters Really Care About Biden’s Age?

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      The evidence suggests it may end up mattering less to voters than their responses to polls indicate.Many Americans say they do not want President Biden to run for re-election, and his age is a big reason. In an NBC News poll released last weekend, 70 percent of adults said Mr. Biden, who is 80, should not run again. Asked if age was a factor, 69 percent of them said yes. Other recent surveys detect a similar lack of enthusiasm, with many voters — including around half of Democrats — calling him too old to seek the White House again.Taken at face value, it’s easy to imagine that his age could undermine the re-election campaign he formally announced on Tuesday. Mr. Biden, already the oldest president in U.S. history, would be 86 at the end of his second term. Republicans have amplified video of his verbal miscues — he also has a stutter — and suggested they reflect cognitive decline. Mr. Biden’s age is a frequent punchline on late-night television.But a review of the polling and academic research paints a surprisingly mixed picture. With the obvious caveat that a serious age-related gaffe or health crisis could change things, there are good reasons to think that Biden’s age may matter less than some polls suggest.1. Theory vs. practiceAmericans often express concern about aging leaders, but that hasn’t stopped them from voting for older candidates.In a recent USA Today/Suffolk University survey, half of Americans said that the ideal age for a president was between 51 and 65. Another quarter said they preferred candidates to be 50 or younger. But five of the last eight presidential nominees, including Mr. Biden in 2020 and Donald J. Trump (twice), have been well over 65. In several cases, voters chose them over much younger primary opponents. And dozens of senators or representatives over 80 have been elected in the past century.Concerns over age are also more nuanced than they may first appear. While most voters favor age limits for politicians, they disagree over what that limit should be. Many voters also say older lawmakers bring valuable experience and shouldn’t be barred from serving if they remain in good health.That doesn’t mean Americans who say they’re concerned about age are lying. Their voting choices may reflect the available options. “There’s nothing inconsistent about people saying no one in their 80s should be president and then voting for someone in their 80s if that’s the only choice they’re given,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster.It’s also not clear that age is a disadvantage for older candidates. Older leaders tend to have lower approval ratings than younger ones, according to a 2022 study co-authored by Damon Roberts, a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Colorado Boulder. But in his research, voters expressed relatively equal openness to supporting hypothetical candidates who were 23, 50 or 77.There are also just a lot of old politicians in office these days. “I don’t think that Biden in particular looks super out of place in the political scene right now,” Mr. Roberts said.Still, no one Mr. Biden’s age has ever sought re-election to the presidency, and other experts doubt he will blend in so easily. “The presidency is fundamentally different,” Mr. Ayres said. “The visibility is so much greater.”2. Party above allPolls do suggest that voters discern bigger issues for Mr. Biden than past older candidates (although pollsters seem to have asked about past candidates’ ages less often). But in a polarized era, party loyalty is far likelier to determine voters’ choice.“In the final analysis, we’re going to vote for the ‘D’ or the ‘R,’ ” said Karlyn Bowman, an emeritus fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies public opinion polling. “Partisan loyalty is so strong at this point that that will trump the other concerns.”Perceptions of Mr. Biden’s fitness also track with partisanship. Republicans — who are unlikely to back any Democratic candidate, no matter how spry — are the most apt to say that Mr. Biden is too old to run. His age also hasn’t stopped the vast majority of Democrats from deeming his presidency a success (though younger Democrats have expressed less eagerness to see Mr. Biden run again).“People are thinking about the election through the lens of other things,” said Margie Omero, a principal at GBAO, a Democratic polling firm. “Biden’s record, Trump’s record, what they see as the future of the country, legislative accomplishments, the fight for abortion rights.”Mr. Biden’s age may ultimately matter most to swing voters who are open to backing either party, giving them outsize clout to pick the winner. “It’s a very small slice of the population now, but still, it’s a very consequential one,” Ms. Bowman said.3. Just a numberThat brings us to whether Mr. Biden will be able to influence voters’ views about his fitness for office. In February, Ms. Omero and her colleagues at Navigator Research, a Democratic polling firm, recruited a small group of swing voters to watch Mr. Biden’s State of the Union address. Before the speech, just 35 percent of them described him as “up for the job of president.” After the address — which featured an impromptu back-and-forth with congressional Republicans over Social Security and Medicare — 55 percent rated him that way.Mr. Biden could also try to dodge the issue by continuing to limit his public appearances. Mr. Ayres worked on the 1996 Senate re-election campaign for Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, then 93, at a time when he was reportedly experiencing cognitive decline. “We tried to keep him as invisible as possible,” Mr. Ayres said.Past presidents, including Dwight Eisenhower and Mr. Reagan, have overcome questions about their age to win re-election decisively.But Mr. Biden is older than they were during their re-election campaigns. “The issue is not so much what he is like today,” Mr. Ayres said. “The issue is what he would be like in 2028.” The president may have to bank on voters overlooking any longer-term concerns about his age.4. The Trump factorMr. Trump, who will be 78 on Election Day, appears best positioned to win the 2024 Republican primary. He leads his closest potential competitor — Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, 44 — in national polls and endorsements from other Republicans.Though the similar ages of Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump could make the issue a wash, for now voters say they’re more concerned about Mr. Biden’s age. And if Mr. Trump aggressively attacks Mr. Biden’s fitness, he may draw more scrutiny to it than a younger but more restrained challenger could.But it’s also a message Mr. Trump has used before (see: 2020’s “Sleepy Joe”) in a matchup he didn’t win. At some point, all the talk about Mr. Biden’s age may start to feel to voters like old hat. More

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      Biden’s Bid for Re-election, and His Age

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      More from our inbox:Mr. Lloyd Webber, Don’t Blame Labor UnionsChina and the Population Ponzi Scheme Doug Mills/The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Biden Declares 2024 Bid; Possible Rematch in Sight” (front page, April 26):When Joe Biden became the Democratic nominee for president in 2020, I reluctantly gave him my vote. If he is the party’s nominee again in 2024, he will have it again.However, I encourage the president to remember that many who will be voting for him see him not as their preferred choice, but rather the drastically lesser of two evils — and that he should use that knowledge as motivation for action.The uncomfortable truth is that our country is broken and politics as usual will simply no longer suffice.In what will hopefully be his second term, Mr. Biden must use the power of his office to address issues that actually affect everyday Americans: income inequality; food insecurity; reproductive, gender and civil rights; gerrymandering and voter restrictions; gun violence; health care; bloated defense spending; predatory business practices; a radicalized Supreme Court. The list is unfortunately long, and requires that the American people deliver him a Democratic majority in Congress.His first term has shown glimpses that Mr. Biden can be a transformative leader. Now, if given the opportunity of four more years, he must truly commit to his promise of saving the soul of America, for it is battered, bruised and long awaiting its champion.Gabe DowneySouthfield, Mich.To the Editor:President Biden may correctly frame the issue in the 2024 elec­tion as “whether in the years ahead we have more free­dom or less free­dom, more rights or fewer.” But while his as yet unknown opponent cannot be measured against these criteria, we do know that the hallmarks of this administration have been extraordinary exercises in presidential power (often reined in by the courts), an increasingly muscular administrative state and a vast expansion in the size and scope of government.Some may agree with the goals underlying these actions, but they plainly represent the antithesis of “more freedom.”Kenneth A. MargolisChappaqua, N.Y.To the Editor:Re “Biden Should Take Voters’ Concerns About Age Seriously” (editorial, April 23):So what if “Mr. Biden’s overall energy level has declined, and he continues to stumble over words in his public appearances”? He is not running any marathons or competing on “Jeopardy!” The most important trait for a president is sound judgment, and there is no evidence that his judgment is impaired.The main reason that people are concerned about his age is that the media keeps talking about it.Ira D. CohenNorth Bergen, N.J.To the Editor:I am a Democrat who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and would vote for him again in 2024. Yes, I am concerned about his age and ability, but I, and I think most of the populace, would be a lot less concerned if he had a different running mate.Judith PetrizzoSan Jose, Calif.To the Editor:As one approaching 80 years, but who still actively practices law and carries his own bag on the golf course, I would like to see President Biden as a one-term president. That’s not because I do not like what he has done to date, but because I view him as too old for a second term.Some octogenarians have been luckier than others vis-à-vis their cognitive and physical skills, and should appreciate that luck.While I must concede that I was impressed by Mr. Biden’s recent trip to Ireland and his eloquence before the Irish Parliament, my overall sense is that he’s ebbing. Being president is a taxing, pressure-cooker job that requires a sharp intellect, unless you’re Donald Trump, and great stamina, which I believe neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Trump possesses.A Biden-Trump rematch would make us a laughingstock. Is this the best we can do?Louis J. MaioneNew YorkTo the Editor:Shame on you, New York Times! Joe Biden at 80 has navigated one of the most divisive and difficult times in our history with dignity and political acumen. To suggest that we throw that away simply because he is older is a capitulation to the current bias against older people.Lisa SerradillaNew YorkMr. Lloyd Webber, Don’t Blame Labor Unions Andrew Kelly/ReutersTo the Editor:Re “Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Closing of ‘Phantom,’ the Loss of My Son and the Future of Broadway” (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, April 17):The musicians of New York City join the Broadway theater community in extending heartfelt condolences to Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber following the death of his son. As he stated, there is nothing more tragic for a parent than the death of their child.Mr. Lloyd Webber then turns to the subject of his megahit, “Phantom of the Opera,” which closed on April 16, noting that this past season was the show’s “best ever.”But he then inexplicably pulls out the long disproved cliché about labor unions driving up ticket prices: “The way multiple union contracts drive up the costs of Broadway shows is unsustainable.”This attack on unions is nonsensical. Individual theatrical failures are determined by a variety of factors. Few, if any, of them are attributable to unions.Mr. Lloyd Webber’s theatrical hits helped create the current focus on expensive blockbusters aimed at tourists. Producers mitigate their “risk” by offering safer, already branded projects that might hopefully recoup any Broadway losses when they perform on the road. This is very dissimilar to the Stephen Sondheim/Hal Prince classics he praises.“Phantom of the Opera” generated 35 years of financial security for Mr. Lloyd Webber, his investors and thousands of union workers who were fortunate enough to bring it to life. More important, the show brought pleasure to audiences all over the world. That kind of success cannot be replicated by simply cutting wages.Tino GagliardiNew YorkThe writer is president of the New York City musicians’ union (American Federation of Musicians Local 802).China and the Population Ponzi SchemeA family cradling their child at a park in Beijing. China’s death rate surpassed its birth rate for the first time in decades this year.Gilles Sabrie for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Shrinking Population in China Affects All” (news article, April 20):No doubt, China’s shrinking population will create economic challenges that will require creative solutions. But aren’t economic challenges preferable to the environmental ones China would face if its population continued growing well past its current 1.4 billion?To declare it a crisis that China will have fewer people to manufacture the products (including the useless junk) that we in the Western world consume at unsustainable levels is to ignore the fact that we live on a planet that is being smothered to death by our plastic trash.To fret over diminishing demand for ugly high-rise apartment buildings is to imply that we should keep sprawling, replacing nature with buildings, roads and utilities, wildlife habitats be damned.Financial security at the individual level doesn’t necessarily require a growing G.D.P. or a growing population. When women have fewer children, they spend more time in the paid work force; they also tend to have healthier, better educated children who grow up to be more productive adults. We should enthusiastically embrace ending the population Ponzi scheme.Marian StarkeyFalmouth, MaineThe writer is vice president for communications at Population Connection. More

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      How Joe Biden Can Win in 2024

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      In 2024, the fate of the Democratic Party will rest in the hands of an 81-year-old incumbent president whom a majority of the country disapproves of and even many Democratic voters think should step aside rather than run for re-election.In the past, the conventional wisdom would be that President Biden faces an uphill battle to win a second term. But in today’s volatile, polarized political environment — in which Mr. Biden’s predecessor and potential general election opponent, Donald Trump, became the first ex-president to be criminally indicted and Democrats posted a history-defying midterm performance — he opens his re-election campaign in a stronger position than many would expect.He can make a compelling case for his first-term accomplishments, his steady leadership and a vision of the country fundamentally different from what is on offer from Republicans — of freedom of opportunity and opportunity of freedom for all Americans.A number of factors have worked in his favor. Because of his age, Mr. Biden has been dogged by speculation about his re-election plans. But no major candidate has stepped up to challenge him in the Democratic primary, which will allow him and his campaign team to focus their time, efforts and resources on the general election.For months, Democrats have been frustrated with the gap between Mr. Biden’s accomplishments and the public’s awareness of them. Despite a flurry of big-ticket legislation that the president signed into law in 2021 and 2022, a February poll showed that 62 percent of Americans — including 66 percent of independents — believed that the Biden administration has accomplished either “not very much” or “little or nothing.” The administration has already begun chipping away at this perception deficit, with the president, vice president and cabinet officials fanning out to battleground states and other parts of the country to spotlight these accomplishments.The timing is right, because these programs are starting to have a big impact on the lives of many Americans. In March, Eli Lilly became the first major drug company to announce that it would cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 a month, matching the Inflation Reduction Act’s cap on insulin costs for seniors. The administration says it has financed over 4,600 bridge repair and replacement projects across the country. And the private sector has committed over $200 billion in manufacturing investments since the passage of the Chips and Science Act, including $40 billion to build new semiconductor factories in Arizona and $300 million to manufacture semiconductor parts in Bay County, Mich.Mr. Biden has even made gains in mitigating voters’ concerns about his age. First, there was his lively, 73-minute State of the Union address, where he sparred ably with heckling Republicans, baiting them into backing his positions on Social Security and Medicare. And his surprise trip to Ukraine, which was the first time in modern history that a president visited an active war zone outside of the control of the U.S. military, received expansive coverage.But Mr. Biden’s biggest advantage might not come from anything he has done. Instead, it might come from the chaos among Republicans. This is welcome news for the president, who is fond of telling voters, “Don’t compare me to the almighty; compare me to the alternative.”There has been talk among many Republican leaders and donors about moving on from Mr. Trump — most recently, in the weeks after the 2022 midterms — but the base isn’t following their lead. Since his indictment by a Manhattan grand jury, his grip on the party, at least based on recent polling evidence, has grown tighter. That may be good news for his campaign, but he has significant vulnerabilities in a general election.And Mr. Trump is just the beginning of the G.O.P.’s problems. In recent years, the electorate has become more supportive of abortion rights. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, election after election has provided evidence of that. Yet Republicans have not come up with an answer — and in some ways, they seem to be making the problem worse. This month, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed into law a six-week abortion ban, which would prohibit the procedure before many women even know they are pregnant. Candidates and likely contenders including former Vice President Mike Pence, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina and former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas have endorsed extreme anti-abortion measures that would be effected nationally — upending years of Republican claims that abortion should be “left to the states.”There are no signs that abortion is letting up as a top issue for voters. This month, liberals won control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the first time in over a decade after Judge Janet Protasiewicz ran a campaign focused on abortion rights and extremism on the right and secured an 11-point victory.A key part of Mr. Biden’s appeal for Democrats is that he doesn’t provoke the sort of divisiveness that Mr. Trump does. Despite Mr. Biden’s sagging approval ratings, in the 2022 midterms, we saw that voting against the president was not a big motivator for many Americans (compared with 2018, when casting a vote against Mr. Trump was a substantial motivator).If these trends continue, Democratic voters will continue to be motivated to vote against an extremist Republican Party — and Democrats will stand a good chance of winning the critical independent bloc.President Biden and his team still have work to do to firm up his support before the election. First up is navigating a debt-ceiling showdown with Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the House, where Republican gamesmanship threatens the nation’s credit rating and could spike Americans’ mortgage, student loan and car payment rates. The issue is tailor-made to play to Mr. Biden’s core strength — that he is a competent, steady hand in an otherwise chaotic political system.The Biden team will also need to increase their messaging to voters about what he has been able to achieve in his first term and what’s at stake over the next four years. That effort will focus in particular on swing-state voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia, and will highlight progress in critical areas like infrastructure, manufacturing and job creation.Mr. Biden’s announcement video provides a preview of what we’ll be hearing from him over the next 18 months, and the subsequent four years if he’s re-elected: He is a defender of democracy and a protector of Americans’ personal freedoms and rights, including the rights of Americans to make their own decisions about reproductive health, to vote and to marry the person they love. The video juxtaposes chaotic images of Jan. 6, abortion protests outside the Supreme Court and Republican firebrands like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene with wholesome videos of Mr. Biden hugging and holding hands with Americans from every walk of life.The message is as subtle as sledgehammer: Do you really want to hand the country over to the Republicans and relive the chaos of the Trump years?Ultimately, if Joe Biden emerges victorious in November 2024, it will be because voters preferred him to the alternative — not to the almighty.Lis Smith (@Lis_Smith), a Democratic communications strategist, was a senior adviser to Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign and is the author of the memoir “Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story.”The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      in Elections

      Julie Chávez Rodríguez, la jefa de campaña de Biden, en cinco pinceladas

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      Comenzó en el activismo político cuando era una niña. Es nieta de César Chávez. Trabajó con Kamala Harris y se ganó un lugar entre las personas de confianza de Biden.El presidente Joe Biden nombró el martes a Julie Chávez Rodríguez como directora de su campaña de reelección y así elevó a una asesora de alto nivel, y a la latina de más alto rango en la Casa Blanca, a uno de los puestos más intensos y examinados de la política estadounidense.Chávez Rodríguez, de 45 años, veterana del gobierno de Barack Obama y de la órbita política de la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris, también trabajó en la campaña presidencial de Biden en 2020 antes de convertirse en directora de la Oficina de Asuntos Intergubernamentales de la Casa Blanca. Es nieta de Cesar Chávez, el icónico líder sindical.A continuación analizamos las cinco cosas que hay que saber sobre la elección de Chávez Rodríguez:Ha navegado por el mundo de BidenBiden tiene un pequeño círculo de colaboradores cercanos, algunos de los cuales lo conocen desde hace años. Irrumpir en ese mundo puede ser un reto, y muchos demócratas esperan que asesores clave de la Casa Blanca supervisen la operación.Pero varios demócratas dijeron que Chávez Rodríguez había impresionado a Biden, de 80 años, y a sus principales asesores, y añadieron que era vista como una persona de confianza en el equipo, con sólidas relaciones políticas.Ella “no comenzó como una persona de Biden, pero siempre ha sido una intermediaria honesta”, dijo Cristóbal Alex, quien trabajó en la campaña de Biden en 2020 y en la Casa Blanca. En ambos lugares, dijo, algunos llegaron a usar el lema “en Julie confiamos”.Chávez Rodríguez no ha dirigido una campaña, lo que la aleja de los currículos de algunos directores de campañas presidenciales anteriores, que se habían presentado a las elecciones al Congreso o estaban inmersos en el trabajo de los comités de los partidos.Pero fue subdirectora de la campaña de Biden en 2020. En la Casa Blanca, tiene contacto con gobernadores, alcaldes y otros líderes estatales y locales y dirigió los esfuerzos de coordinación de respuesta de emergencia.“La capacidad de realizar varias tareas a la vez, la capacidad de adaptarse rápidamente, de dar un paso atrás y asimilar la complejidad y luego gestionar esa complejidad… No puedo imaginar un trabajo más difícil que el que ha tenido”, dijo el gobernador Phil Murphy, demócrata de Nueva Jersey y presidente de la Asociación Nacional de Gobernadores. “No estoy minimizando ni un segundo lo que implica dirigir una campaña presidencial. Es un gran trabajo. Pero ella ha hecho un gran trabajo”.… y en la órbita de HarrisTambién está muy vinculada a Harris, quien puede atraer la atención de los votantes debido a la edad de Biden.Chávez Rodríguez, quien es californiana, trabajó como directora estatal de Harris cuando era senadora por California y en su campaña presidencial.“Creo que sus profundas relaciones con el equipo central de Biden y su profunda relación con la oficina de la vicepresidenta, la convierten en la candidata ideal”, dijo Juan Rodriguez, un estratega que trabajó con ella (sin parentesco, dijo) bajo el mandato de Harris.Una mujer de color es el rostro de la campaña de reelección de BidenDurante la última campaña presidencial, Biden enfrentó críticas por la blancura de su círculo más cercano.Ahora que trata de revitalizar los elementos básicos de la coalición multirracial que lo llevó a la presidencia, algunos demócratas afirman que Chávez Rodríguez ofrece una representación vital en los niveles más altos de la política estadounidense.“La gente de la comunidad hispana lo está sintiendo”, dijo Cecilia Muñoz, que dirigió el Consejo de Política Interior durante el gobierno de Obama, la primera persona hispana en ocupar ese puesto.Se inició muy temprano en el activismo políticoChávez Rodríguez, que fue detenida a los 9 años durante una protesta, ha visto cómo su vida familiar y profesional coinciden.Valerie Jarrett, que trabajó como asesora principal del expresidente Obama, recordó que Chávez Rodríguez trabajó en la dedicación de un monumento nacional a su abuelo, pero se mostró reacia a posar para la foto, alegando que tenía obligaciones profesionales. (Dolores Huerta, que trabajó estrechamente con Chávez, insistió en que se uniera, dijo Jarrett).El momento demostró una “cualidad de no tener ego, lo que, digamos, es inusual en los altos niveles”, dijo Jarrett.Si ese legado familiar es significativo para los votantes es otro tema, dijo Matthew Garcia, un profesor de Dartmouth que ha escrito sobre Chávez, al señalar que United Farm Workers (UFW), el sindicato que cofundó, ha perdido influencia.“Puede que funcione con los baby boomers, pero las nuevas generaciones tienen ideas diferentes sobre la UFW, si es que tienen alguna idea”, dijo.Sin embargo, Biden puso un busto de Chávez en el Despacho Oval.Se enfrenta a una tarea difícilAunque Biden, como titular, tiene muchas ventajas, también tiene claras desventajas. Y en un país profundamente polarizado, las primeras encuestas muestran una campaña electoral competitiva.Con este telón de fondo, Chávez Rodríguez debe ayudar rápidamente a construir una gran operación y equilibrar las responsabilidades de gobierno de Biden con la campaña, mientras se adapta a dirigir una campaña por primera vez.“El currículum tradicional de un director de campaña para un candidato a la presidencia de Estados Unidos suele ser: ser blanco y ser hombre”, dijo Muñoz. “Si eres una mujer de color, casi por definición tienes que llegar por una vía no tradicional. Pero te diré una cosa: el presidente sabe lo que ella puede hacer”.Katie Glueck es reportera política nacional. Antes, fue corresponsal política sénior de Metro y reportera principal en el Times. También cubrió la política para la oficina de McClatchy en Washington y para Politico. @katieglueck More