Top Obama officials skeptical of Biden’s plan to fix his two biggest problems

Officials who worked for former President Barack Obama are sounding the alarm about two central problems in President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.

Front and center for voters have been concerns about his age and the economy. One of those problems is something he can’t do anything about, while the other has been the key topic that Biden has tried to emphasize on the campaign trail but without success.

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Last month, ex-Obama advisers celebrated the 15-year anniversary of Obama’s 2008 presidential victory — attending a conference in Chicago where current Biden aides outlined plans ahead of the 2024 election, according to New York magazine, which spoke to several aides on both sides.

While Biden’s team detailed the president’s path to lock in the White House next year, aides admitted the race will be close, as former President Donald Trump only narrowly lost a handful of key states in 2020, such as Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Trump is leading Biden in hypothetical matchups in all four states, according to a CNN poll released recently.

Former Obama aides, many of whom worked on his 2012 reelection campaign, did not see a clear plan to tackle the negativity surrounding Biden’s age and inflation in the U.S. One Democrat described Biden’s team as “absurdly defensive.”

Despite Biden’s successful fundraising blitz, hosting big-money donors in Washington last week and embarking on a three-day tour in California, he’s losing support in key voting groups and demographics that carried him to the White House in 2020.

Voters under 30 are most concerned about inflation, with 44% saying the economy is the most important topic the nation is facing, according to a survey this month from Emerson College Polling. Voters under 25 strongly disagree with Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war, with 44% reporting the president’s response as “poor,” while 34% of those 25-29 rate his handling as excellent or good.

Dozens of polls say Biden is widely viewed as too old for office, even among his own party. Among Democrats who don’t think Biden should run for reelection, 93% of them cited his age, according to a December CBS News/YouGov survey.

Biden is the oldest president ever to serve at 81, and polling among Democrats and the broader public indicates voters are taking issue with that fact. Unlike his policies, Biden’s age will be an unchangeable factor in his 2024 campaign, worrying Democrats who fear voters might flock toward a younger contender.

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“My most negative perception is they suspect, at the end, that ‘these people are going to be with us. These people are going to get onboard.’ We just have to get to that point, and part of it is Trump emerging,” a former senior Obama strategist said.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Biden and Obama’s team for comment.