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Is Joe Biden excessively old to be President of the United States?
The question has provided plenty of fodder for Republicans and right-wing outlets, while Liberals and the majority of the American media have been hesitant to address it.
But, as the oldest person ever elected to the highest office in the United States readies for a gruelling Middle East tour, speculation about his apparent desire to run again in 2024 is heating up.
Democrats are in a difficult position because there is no proper alternative to Biden, who turns 80 on November 20.
“He is currently qualified to be President. However, he is too old to run in the next election “In a recent article, The Atlantic concluded, while sharply criticizing correct claims that Biden suffers from dementia.
Dissatisfaction with Biden is widespread within his own party, with a New York Times poll released Monday showing that 64% of Democratic voters would prefer another applicant in 2024. His age has been cited as the primary reason for those seeking a change.
The president would’ve been 82 at the start of his second term and 86 at the end. Ronald Reagan, for example, was 77 because once he left office in 1989.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Biden’s “age has become an inconvenient issue for him and his party,” describing a White House that has become defensive, even anxious.
Biden, like his predecessors, has a long list of responsibilities, from the Ukraine war and runaway inflation to the country’s gun violence and a staunchly conservative Supreme Court.
Weekends are quiet.
Many Americans envy his health, with a health check last November completing that he is a “vigorous” man who suffers from mild acid reflux and arthritis.
But his presence betrays the toll the office has taken: his white hair is becoming thin, and his gait is cautious.
He occasionally loses his train of thought or lurches while reading from a script, and the stutter he overcame as a child reappears on occasion.
The White House has had to retract the president’s inopportune remarks on sensitive international issues several times.
Biden holds fewer press briefings and interviews than his predecessors, preferring to submit op-eds in newspapers where the content can be tightly controlled.
On weekends, he frequently disappears for two or three days to one of his two Delaware homes. When he goes to mass, White House journos only see him once, from a distance.
When G7 leaders posed for a photo in June, it was impossible to ignore the age difference between Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 50, or French President Emmanuel Macron, 44.
