Joe Biden and his age issues are a concern: President Joe Biden’s campaign team is taking measures to mitigate the widely held impression that the president is too old to serve a second term.
Amongst the measures: shorter steps and notecards, meant to address Biden’s tendency to fall, and his tendency to forget what he is saying, respectively.
Two behaviors are commonly associated with the geriatric group.
Age-Related Concerns for Joe Biden
“Joe Biden’s aides realized they had a problem last month when the president tripped over a sandbag – hard – at the Air Force Academy’s graduation ceremony,” NBC reported. “Afterward, a few huddled to figure out what may have gone wrong and how to make sure that such an embarrassing and dangerous incident “never happens again” according to two people familiar with the discussion.”
Embarrassing and dangerous, indeed. According to the National Council on Aging over one in four Americans age 65 and over fall each year. Biden has been in the 65+ demographic for fifteen years and, at least this year, qualifies as the one in four Americans who have fallen. Geriatric falls are not just a joke or a political liability. Geriatric falls cost Americans tens of billions of dollars per year as the “leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries for older Americans.”
Biden’s age-related physical concerns are not limited to falling. Biden is also frail and without the stamina he once had. Apparently, Biden’s work week is limited to preserve the president’s finite stamina, meaning, he doesn’t work in the mornings, evenings, or weekends. Oh, and he takes a lunch break to recharge each day. So basically the guy is essentially working a 35-hour work-week at best in a job that most treat as all-consuming.
“He doesn’t have the stamina levels of an Obama or a younger president,” a Western diplomat speaking with anonymity confirmed. “People worry about his physical frailty and running from age 82 to 86. That is really old by European standards. Really, really old. We don’t have anyone that age.”
The Upcoming Campaign
Biden’s aides are especially worried about Biden’s age and the upcoming 2024 campaign. Voters are especially concerned with Biden’s age, with even Democrats suggesting the president is too old to run for reelection. So, Biden’s age, and his stamina, and his frailty will be under intense scrutiny throughout the campaign. The scrutiny could be a serious problem; presidential campaigns are notoriously vigorous, especially for incumbents who must campaign and run a country simultaneously.
Biden’s 35-hour work week won’t be sufficient if he wants to do everything. And if you’re thinking Biden just campaigned for president in 2020, he’ll be fine, then remember: the 2020 campaign was a COVID campaign. Everyone was in quarantine. Biden was able to run for office from his Delaware basement. He didn’t have to bounce around from time zone to time zone, stumping multiple times per day, shaking thousands of hands, taking hundreds of pictures. No buses, no planes, no trains.
He just got to hang out in his basement and jump on Zoom occasionally to say that Trump was botching the COVID response.
It was a unique moment in campaign history that seemed perfectly tailored to a candidate who was too old and too frail to mount a robust campaign.
Biden won’t have that benefit in 2024. He’s going to have to hit the traditional campaign trail and meet some people.
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
From 19FortyFive
The Second American Civil War Has Begun
