I was born in 1953, and when Barack Obama (born in 1961) was elected President I thought that was going to be a significant age marker for me: the first time the President of the United States was someone younger than I. Now it's beginning to look like Obama may be the ONLY President younger than I who will serve in my lifetime. That makes me sad, especially for the potential talents members of the younger generations may have to offer and the voices that won't be heard as people my age or older clog the political system and cling to power until everyone in my generation croaks.
But of all the Presidential candidates in the field at the moment, the one I'm most afraid of in terms of his age is Joe Biden. Bernie Sanders, Michael Bloomberg and even Donald Trump have aged without any apparent ill effects to their mental acuity. (Everything awful and apparently crazy we know about the current-day Donald Trump was readily apparent to people who knew him 20, 30 or 40 years ago.) In putting their bizarrely misplaced faith in Joe Biden, the Democratic Party establishment and all too many Democratic voters are locking themselves into the candidacy of a man who is simply not up to the mental strain of the job and who four years from now may not even be capable of functioning, much less governing.
If the Democrats nominate Joe Biden -- if the party elites rig the process for him the way they did for the equally unelectable (but for different reasons) Hillary Clinton in 2016 -- they will present American voters a choice between two crazies: a narcissistic egomaniac and a dementia patient. — Mark Gabrish Conlan
MARCH 3, 2020
Meyerson on TAP
The Septuagenarian
Sweepstakes. Yesterday, I turned 70.
Aging, of course, is both
anticipatable and nonetheless surprising. Seventy? How the hell can I be 70?
Even more surprising, however,
is this: With Amy Klobuchar’s withdrawal from the presidential contest
yesterday, exquisitely timed to my birthday, I enter my eighth decade still
younger than any of the serious candidates for president who remain in the
running. Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg are both 78. Joe Biden is 77. Spring
chicken Elizabeth Warren is 70 (she’s about half a year older than I). Donald
Trump is 73.
This is a field that lends
itself to age-specific critiques. Some Biden backers point out that Bernie is a
heart attack survivor (and presumably, a heart attack risk), while some Bernie
backers note that Biden doesn’t seem as sharp as he once was (however sharp
that may have been). Many assert that Trump is a dangerous lunatic, though most
believe that’s not a function of his age.
Never before in our history
has the nation been confronted with a choice of leaders all of whom were 70 or
more. In the 19th century, people didn’t live that long, but it wasn’t until
1960—Eisenhower’s last year in office—that a president reached the big seven-o,
and that was when Ike was outward bound. The only incoming president who’d
surpassed the 70 threshold before he moved into the White House was Reagan, but
years of Hollywood makeup had made him look younger, shinier, and better
coiffed, and he’d had to fend off rival candidates all of whom were a good deal
younger, if not so well coiffed.
In all my now 70 years, it never
once occurred to me that by the time I would age out of my sixties, I’d still
be younger than an entire presidential field. Should this make me feel better
as an individual? (The possibilities before me are still limitless!) Or worse
as a citizen? (Prepare for Geezer-ocracy!) Years of experience tell me to bet
on Geezer-ocracy. ~ HAROLD MEYERSON
