On October 23rd of last year, I posted a piece that was largely about President Joe Biden’s age. How it was becoming a serious political liability. I wrote that it was not that Biden was old, it was how he was old. I observed that many Americans who are 80 or older present “hale and hearty, fully able to take on what life throws at them.” But, I added, that Biden was not among them.
I commented that he “looks old, old. Frail, feeble, and fragile; pale and gray; wispy, and thin; [taking] small steps haltingly on what seem spindly, wobbly legs. His eyes are small slits in a curiously unlined but nevertheless wizened face.”
Further I noted that he sounds old. “His voice is ancient – scrawny and raspy, croaky, and scratchy; weak and wan. It seems to emanate not from deep down, in ringing – dare I say masculine? – tones. But rather from up top…in sounds that are not exactly high-pitched, but lack the cadence of power and persuasion, of a leader in anything resembling full command.”
Finally, I remarked that he speaks old, old. “Never an orator, the passing years have not been kind to his capacity to communicate, to convince us that he’s a smart, strong leader who knows exactly what he’s doing when. Biden nearly never speaks extemporaneously. He does not trust himself, nor apparently do his aides, presume he can do so without risking an awful gaffe.”
That was then. In October I suggested he was an accident waiting to happen. Well, this week was not exactly an accident, but it did happen. What happened was that, inevitably, the Biden-age issue went from simmering on the back burner to boiling on the front.
There is nothing to be done about how Biden looks, walks, or sounds. But when he says things that are just plain wrong, or make no sense, the press understandably pounces, and the public is justifiably perturbed. Even last fall, more than 70 percent of voters in battleground states said they did not think that Biden had “the mental sharpness to be an effective president.”
For Joe Biden’s memory lapses and rhetorical screw-ups, we get three excuses. First, that his likely political opponent in the presidential race, Donald Trump, is as bad or worse. Second, that these sorts of mistakes are nothing new for Biden. That he’s always been known, during his long political career, for making verbal gaffes and for oratorial meanderings and malapropisms. And third, that whatever his deficits, his mind is generally intact and that his performance as president proves it.
All true. This time around Trump presents much more poorly than he did in 2016 or even 2020. And yes, Biden has long been known for his convoluted speech. And yes, by many measures Biden’s presidency has been successful.
And yet. And yet this past week has been a nightmare for Biden’s supporters – especially members of his team who want nothing so much as to brush away doubts triggered by his obviously advancing age. This is not about Biden’s being 86 when he ends a second term. It is about his being 82 when he begins a second term. And it is about his being 81 now – 81 and appearing neither notably hale nor hearty.
In fact, he is so not hale or hearty that he and his aides are even more fearful now than they were before of his being in public. His appearances are limited in number, in length, in spontaneity, and in his willingness to interact with interlocutors. We do get Biden reading woodenly from a podium. We do get Biden answering quick questions from reporters craving for even a few words from his lips. We do get the very occasional flash of unrehearsed humor. And we do get Biden-the Master-Empathizer. What we do not get, viirtually never get, is evidence of a strong leader in full charge of his full faculties. The White House is so extremely risk-averse, so extremely concerned that the president will embarrass himself, that it turned down the opportunity to have him participate in the traditional pre-Super Bowl interview. In other words, Biden blew the chance to strut his stuff tomorrow before some 100 million Americans.
In just the last week Biden’s missteps included:
- Confusing the deceased former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl with the very much alive former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
- Confusing the deceased former French President Francois Mitterand with the very much alive current French President Emmanuel Macron.
- Referring to the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as the president of Mexico.
- Claiming that all the classified records found in his home were in “lockable filing cabinets” when they were not.
- Claiming that none of the documents were “highly classified,” even though some were top secret.
Most politically damaging of all was, of course, special counsel Robert Hur’s report of his investigation into the secret documents that then Vice President Biden took, illegally, from his offices in Washinton to his home in Delaware. Gratuitous or not, it was impossible to set aside Hur’s conclusion that one of the reasons no criminal charges were warranted was because a jury was unlikely to convict “a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur also detailed several of Biden’s serious memory lapses, including the precise years of his vice-presidency and when exactly his son Beau died. Of course, when the president heard about Hur’s report he was visibly and publicly outraged, especially at even being asked about the death of his son. Biden insisted moreover that he would never step aside for anyone else because “I’m the most qualified person in this country to be president of the United States and finish the job I started.”
Biden is of course surrounded by people who have told him all along – and who continue to tell him – that he’s doing the right thing by hanging in. By running for a second term. High on the list is the First Lady, Jill Biden, who by all accounts has been a strong supporter of his decision to run for a second term. Also high on the list is Vice President Kamala Harris, who predictably was visibly outraged at the special counsel’s comments, calling them “inaccurate and inappropriate” and “politically motivated.” And then there’s Biden’s team, including his aides and his lawyers who, for example, insisted that Biden’s “inability to recall dates or details of events that happened years ago is neither surprising nor unusual.”
The trouble is that whatever the huffing and puffing, Biden’s age issue will not only not go away it will get worse. Unless he seals himself away from the public altogether, or is stage-managed in the extreme, he will inevitably make mistakes, which from here on in, fairly or unfairly, will be attributed to his age. Additionally, is the Harris problem. As of a few weeks ago, more than 50 percent of registered voters have a negative view of Biden’s vice president. Moreover, over her time in office her approval ratings have tended down not up.
As anyone who reads my posts knows, I fear and loathe the prospect of Donald Trump being reelected. It’s precisely why I wish that months ago Biden would have gracefully stepped aside for someone other and younger to head the Democratic ticket. But he did not – we are where we are. If he loses in November his age will be largely responsible. And if he wins in November his age will impinge on the quality of his presidency. Would he despite this be better than Trump as president? Yes. Did he, however, mar his generally exceptional record of public service by running for a second term? Yes.