OPINION: It’s long past morning in Biden’s America

Ronald Reagan did something 40 years ago that now seems impossible: He romped to re-election with victories in 49 states.

Along the way he buried the age issue, rode a growing economy with declining inflation, and promoted a country with renewed faith and spirit.

President Biden and his team are working hard to reprise that historic win.

Mr. Biden’s ad team is so enamored of Reagan’s “Morning in America” commercial they produced a copycat.

The video announcing the Biden re-election bid is replete with images of smiling children and folks flying the American flag in small towns.

But while the 1984 commercial – crafted by Reagan’s “Tuesday Team” of admen – was simple and affecting, Mr. Biden’s video is an amateurish pastiche of quick cutaways and amped-up music.

All the frenetic energy is apparently meant to distract Americans from the aging president’s obvious lack of vitality.

Without the closed captioning, viewers may not have been able to understand the rapid-fire word mangles spilling from Mr. Biden’s mouth.

In his video, Mr. Biden calls for “freedom,” but voters will naturally wonder if that means freedom from his manufactured inflation, uncontrolled borders, culture wars, educational failures and nonstop efforts to divide America.

Given Mr. Biden’s reneging on his inauguration pledge of “much to repair, much to restore, much to heal,” with his crude attacks on half his fellow citizens, his script-writers looked for redemption by stealing a message from Reagan.

“Hey boss, it worked for Reagan; it might work for you.”

I was in the Oval Office in January 1984 when Reagan looked into the Tuesday Team’s camera and declared, “Our work is not finished; we have more to do.”

In perhaps his boldest bit of borrowing, Mr. Biden’s line is: “Let’s finish the job.”

The Biden commercial is already running in battleground states.

But two things are missing.

One is adman’s Hal Riney’s smooth-as-velvet narration with calm reassurances that things are better.

The other is something Mr. Biden will never, ever match – Reagan’s gift of communicating optimism.

Mr. Biden’s ad is replete with dissonance and anger – images of riots and warnings of dangers to democracy and cuts to Social Security.

The 46th president hopes to ride a wave of fear to a second term.

Watching his opening announcement, and his appearance at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, I see how deep are the concerns for the Biden team as they struggle to maintain the vibrancy of his persona.

Reagan pulled off jokes about his age, 73 in 1984, because he was a veteran of 30 years on the speaking circuit telling stories and teeing up one-liners.

From the correspondents’ awkward reactions, it’s also clear that Reagan had better gag writers than Mr. Biden does. One more thing: If Dutch couldn’t remember the last country he visited, he would have had the whole room laughing with a story about John Wayne or Bob Hope.

Mr. Biden not only couldn’t remember his recent visit to Ireland, he struggled to hold the attention of an Irish 10-year-old and needed help from his adult son to work the rope line.

In 1984 our pollster was obsessed about the “age issue,” but we had easy solutions.

In the first place, Reagan had a winning record on which to run. When challenged, he stepped up to the plate. He campaigned vigorously with the gifts of a veteran on the stump, always at ease with an audience.

The electorate knew – and if they didn’t, the White House staff told them – that our guy spent his weekends and vacations riding horses, cutting brush and building fences on his California ranch.

If the Biden team is going to try to mimic Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign, they have their work cut out. My guess is that the best they can do is fly him to Delaware, hand him a pair of Ray-Bans, and film him sitting in his Corvette.

Kenneth Khachigian was chief speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and helped produce the “Morning in America” commercials.