“I am a grown man running against a six-year-old,” President Joe Biden tried to poke
fun recently at his opponent, Donald Trump, at the White House Correspondents
Dinner – but also about the constant elephant in the room regarding his chances for a
second term.
Yes, the Democrat is a grown man – and a lot more than that. At 81 at the moment, he
is already by far the oldest President in US history. The prior record holder, Ronald
Reagan, was 77 when he left the Oval Office in January 1987. Should Biden lose, he
would exit the White House at the beginning of 2025 at the age of 82. Should he win
and stay healthy, he would leave 2029 – with a truly record-setting age of 86 years.
Biden, in the eyes of the electorate, is simply too old to be President, as a majority of
polls show. A staggering 86% find that he is way past his prime to direct the world’s
most powerful country, and this includes a majority of Democrats as well. His team
likes to point out that his rival is just four years younger. However, far less, 59%, of
voters extend their age concerns to Trump as well. It is no secret in political circles that
Trump appears more dynamic and “younger” than Biden on the trail, even though he
has his share of confusing statements and name mix-ups.
With Biden, though, it is sometimes tough to watch as he seems not all there on a
number of occasions. It started with a series of falls on the steps of Air Force One. One
time he went down from his mountain bike right in front of TV crews. Biden regularly
gets lost on stage and wanders around seemingly lost. He keeps on telling tall tales
that have been debunked many times before; most recently, he offered that his uncle
was shot down over Papua New Guinea and was probably eaten by local cannibals
(the government there reacted not too amused about the grim fairy tale).
Just recently, he also read out loud the instructions from the teleprompter, saying ‘four
more years’ when the speechwriters wanted to have the audience chant, and ‘pause’
when it was suggested that he pause with the speech.
His increasingly stiff gait makes Biden look even older than he is. This is caused by
‘significant spinal arthritis,” according to his White House physician, Dr. Kevin
O’Connor, who recently examined him during the last annual health check-up at the
Walter Reed National Medical Center. Otherwise, the exam provided reassuring claims
about Biden’s overall health, but public perceptions are a different matter.
The focus of his team is on keeping his surroundings danger-free and implementing
modifications to public events and his overall schedule. Internally, it is called ‘Operation
Bubble Wrap’ has the purpose of shielding the Commander in Chief from anything
that could cause another embarrassing situation.
After Biden tripped over a sandbag to keep equipment in place at a public speech, the
teams are now checking every venue scrupulously for possible dangers to the 81-year-old. Biden is also now using a much shorter stairway to Air Force One after a number
of embarrassing stumbles.
The New York Post recently blamed his own party for the Methuselah presidency. It
was deemed necessary, so they speculated, that Biden himself would have to defend
the White House against a Trump return, since Vice President Kamala Harris has been
politically disappointing and has similar low polling numbers as Biden.
The paper called Biden’s campaign for re-election ‘elder abuse’ and also criticized his
wife, First Lady Jill Biden, for not protecting her husband.
