A few weeks ago, 81-year-old Joe Biden, held a press conference where he insisted that his memory was absolutely fine. He did it because of the publication of a justice department report that cleared him of criminal charges over his handling of classified materials, which he had absent-mindedly stored in his garage. Special counsel, Robert Hur, mentioned the president’s “significantly limited” memory. Mr Hur says the reason he didn’t bring charges was that “at trial, Mr Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” The leader of the Free World is an old duffer. If he wins the next election, he could be in charge of the nuclear button at the age of 86.
A few days later, Biden had almost left another stage, when he returned to the podium to take a question on the Israel-Gaza conflict, in which he referred to the Egyptian leader, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, as “the Mexican president”.
According to polls, Biden’s age and brain fog are his biggest vulnerability with voters. As for his likely opponent, the most terrifying thing about Donald Trump is that, at 77, he is comparatively sane. However, he is only four years younger than Biden, is often shaky when he walks and recently confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi mid-rant. So is it fair that one faces a lot more scrutiny on the lost their marbles front than the other?
Unfortunately, fairness isn’t one of the main tenets of political life. The way in which a politician presents is much more important than actual facts or their record.
The visuals around Biden’s age are not great. He has actually led the country’s envied economic recovery from the pandemic, which is good (well done his carers), but every time he appears on stage there is the gnawing stress of whether he will walk off-stage into an FBI agent, rather than a door.
During the Tory leadership campaign, Liz Truss once walked the wrong way off stage and tried to exit the room via a first-floor window. Obviously, this was just a mistake anyone could have made, but the optics of her competence were terrible. She was actually unable to find her own way off stage and mentally, the visuals were stronger than the probable facts.
As a candidate, Trump is probably far more dangerous, but Biden is at a perception disadvantage. They are both at the stage where a family intervention about their fitness to drive would be unquestionably fair. However, Trump defies reality. He has a seeming ability to make all the cards fall well for him, even when you think they really shouldn’t. They just do, it’s one of those things.
So would you employ an 86-year-old? That is an unfair question to ask perhaps. Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn’t. It depends on what you want them to do, and the fact is; being president of the United States is not the same as “writing, teaching, or volunteering in a charity shop”, and is a job for a younger man than either Biden or Trump. Not a woman of course.
Surely the US would prefer to portray itself as a young, vibrant democracy, not a gerontocracy headed by has-beens, who should probably be spending their final years basking in glorious reflection, or prison?
