CHRISTIAN TOTO: Why Hollywood Can’t Save Joe Biden This Time.
Reality can be the cruelest of mistresses.
This fact, one assumes, is not lost on Joe Biden.
Last month, the president’s public approval reached its lowest point in nearly two years. Biden’s approval rating among young Americans is particularly low.
His administration’s inability to connect with this crucial demographic spells trouble for the Democrats. The youth vote could prove to be a decisive factor in November.
Enter “Won’t PAC Down,” a new super PAC with a star-studded Hollywood lineup. The group’s mission? Rejuvenate Biden’s appeal among young voters.
Imagine writers and comedians from “Saturday Night Live” and “Parks and Recreation” joining forces with political strategists to inject some much-needed energy into Biden’s image.
Well, imagine no more.
Hollywood vets and Biden alums launch super PAC to shore up his youth vote problem https://t.co/JMvn7ZOKgi
— POLITICO (@politico) June 9, 2024
Their primary goal is to make Biden appear humorous (no easy feat). They intend to achieve this by using a potent mix of comedy and insight designed specifically for Millennials and Gen Zers. Instead of banking on tired celebrity endorsements, they’re enlisting young writers, directors and producers to craft stories that resonate with youth culture.
But is the goal to actually get Biden to the finish line, or simply keep some positive media attention on him in the interim? As Charles Cooke writes:
In life, as in science, it can be useful to extrapolate, and here, in the summer of 2024, it comes time to do just that. It is by now near-universally acknowledged that Joe Biden is too old to perform his duties. It is less universally acknowledged that this has serious implications — the chief among which is that, for all the rococo pageantry that attends his reelection campaign, Joe Biden is not, in fact, running to be president of the United States.
I do not offer this observation in a conspiratorial tone. Joe Biden won the 2020 election legitimately; he is currently serving as the rightful occupant of his office; and he remains eligible to run again, to win again, to take office again, and to exercise all the levers of power that the Constitution would grant his office during a second term. Instead, I mean that Biden is operating as a stand-in, a widget, or a MacGuffin, whose primary purpose is to make it to November 5 of this year without expiring. Most candidates have plans for their coveted four years; Biden has none. He does not expect to be there, and the public agrees with his hunch.
Exit quote: “Biden is little more than a political instrument, to be played for the benefit of his team. Presently, Biden’s utility lies in his staying in the race. Twenty-three seconds after he has won, this will change. And, when it does, the reversal will be astonishing in both speed and scope.”
UPDATE: Finally, a Hollywood superstar emerges, who will do wonders to jump-start Biden’s image among centrist pro-military voters, and those who think his handlers have pushed him far to the left on environmental issues…: Jane Fonda to join Jill Biden at Reno appearance to engage senior voters.