Joe Biden’s handlers want Americans to think of his age as a positive thing. He’s supposed to be viewed as wise due to his old age according to the spin. However, a new poll shows that American voters are not buying it.
“Biden just seems to be very compromised by age-related conditions,” said Eric Dezenhall, 60, a corporate scandal-management consultant who has followed Trump’s career and worked in Ronald Reagan’s White House, told The Associated Press. “Even people who like him see him as being frail and not altogether ‘there.’”
They see Biden’s visible stumbles, his falls, and his verbal gaffes send the message to the American voter that he is not all there. Biden presents himself as an old 80. A new AP/NORC poll finds that 77% of Americans think that Biden is too old to be president. The party breakdown shows that 89% of Republicans think he is too old, as do 69% of Democrats. Among Independents who decide presidential elections, 74% say they think Biden is too old.
Book: Joe Biden Admits to Lacking Stamina as POTUS
Privately, Biden admitted to lacking stamina as president, according to a new book.
“His advanced years were a hindrance, depriving him of the energy to cast a robust public presence or the ability to easily conjure a name,” Franklin Foer writes in The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future. “It was striking that he took so few morning meetings or presided over so few public events before 10am. His public persona reflected physical decline and time’s dulling of mental faculties that no pill or exercise regime can resist.”
“In private, he would occasionally admit that he felt tired.”
When Biden fell in June during the Air Force Academy’s commencement ceremony it sent a strong reminder that the president is not a young man.
“It’s a sad thing to see,” Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “You don’t want to see anyone do that. But it was frustrating because honestly, that was symbolic of the state of our country.”
“Our country continues to stub its toe,” he added. “Our country continues to trip and fall. Our country continues to go in the wrong direction.”
Voters Concerned About Gerontocracy
The growing gerontocracy is causing many Americans to think age limits should exist for those holding office.
Among Congressional leaders, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is 72. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is 81. In the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas is 75 and Samuel Alito is 72.
The poll found that 67% favor requiring Supreme Court justices to retire by a certain age, 68% support age ceilings for candidates for House and Senate, and 66% support age ceilings for candidates for president.
Voters Don’t Notice Trump’s Age
Trump who is just three years younger than Biden at 77 is viewed as sharper than Biden, but many see him as full of himself.
“Just watching and listening to Biden it’s pretty self-evident he is not what he was,” Greg Pack, 62, a past and possibly future Trump voter in Ardmore, Oklahoma, told The Associated Press.
As far as Trump is concerned, Pack argues he is “He is a lot sharper but at the end of his term, who knows?” Pack said, thinking ahead to January 2029. “I’m just ready for someone younger.” He’s had about enough of having Trump who he sees as “all about himself.”
Denzenhall says that Trump’s age is not the first thing people see when they look at him. He notes, “Whatever Trump’s negatives are, I don’t think most people see them as being related to being disabled in an age-related way … In fact, the more you throw at him, the more he seems like a ranting toddler. Disturbing, sure, but elderly? Not necessarily. Trump has been ranting this way for almost eight decades, and it always drives him forward.”
John Rossomando is a defense and counterterrorism analyst and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
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