Yesterday, Joe Biden turned 81 and it was yet another occasion for the media to fixate on his age. Ir has become a staple of the news to say that voters are concerned about his age. Why is that news? If any pollster asked me if I was concerned about his age, of course I would say yes. But that does not mean I think he is unable to be president. It becomes news only if there are signs that his age is affecting his ability to serve as president. And as far as I can see, he seems to be able to do so. I may not agree with some of the things he does – I am furious about his support of Israeli atrocities in Gaza – but there is no sign that he does not know what he is doing.
And yet, serial sex abuser Donald Trump (SSAT) is 78, just three years younger than Biden, who says the most outlandish things and showing signs of cognitive decline and yet there is hardly any focus on that.
Another trope that the media is fixated on is Biden’s unpopularity. Kevin Drum is fed up with this and keeps showing a graph that shows that Biden’s approval ratings are the same as those of Barack Obama and SSAT at the same time during their presidencies.
But that is the media for you. Once they have decided on a storyline (“Biden is old!” “Biden is unpopular!”), they find it hard to let the facts and context change the narrative.
Biden’s not too old -- he’s been a supporter of settler colonialism for a long time.
I’m not frankly thrilled about a lot of his other politics, including his horrible tendency to announce bigly that he is doing something (e.g.: student loan forgiveness, taking marijuana off the controlled substances list, green new deal, etc.) then discovering that he couldn’t actually do that, and quietly “forget about it” while accepting the plaudits from the masses who lack the attention span to watch his follow-through. And there was the “we will stop fossil fuel leases” pledge which he ignored after duping a few progressive voters, because keeping oil prices down is key to his re-election hopes. He also teased being a one-term president, which I thought meant that he was going to set Harris up as the first black woman president -- but, instead, he’s kept her locked up in a closet somewhere and is doing nothing to help his heir apparent. That is quintessential “too old” behavior. It’s not that he’s too old, it’s that he’s doing a lot of stuff that is characteristic of old farts in power.
He’s another stinky American politician, in other words. I don’t care if he’s old, though I do find it depressing and suspicious that his handlers are so eager to keep him bottled up so he doesn’t drool on his shirt in public. Trump is, in my opinion, in early stage dementia, and Biden’s got some cognitive problems, too. I’m sick of watching partisan democrats desperately reaching for excuses for Biden. OK, he’s a piece of shit and you’ve set up a situation where the alternative is an even worse piece of shit. So I’ll vote for your piece of shit. Happy?
Very old comic
https://blr808.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/did-anyone-actually-see-the-candidate-eat-the-rat/
still applicable
Watch the video in Comment 1 and compare it to Biden speaking extemporaneously today. You don’t see signs of cognitive decline?
@ Marcus & Marner
I would say we are seeing quite noticeable signs of cognitive decline in both men. Probably neither one should be running for any elective office let alone President of the USA.
“cognitive decline” works very hard here, jrkrideau.
Let me give you an old game analogy:
In ye olde AD&D, as a character ages, they lost points in intelligence but gained them in wisdom. And, of course, they levelled-up as they gained experience.
(The been there done that seen it before thingie)
Remember too that a President is probably worse the more they try to micromanage things for themselves and keep track of all the minutiae — the whole idea is they provide policy and direction and have access entire bureaucracies’ worth of expertise and resources to do that for them.
[though I must say, Noam Chomsky is not what he was, that’s for sure]
jrkrideau@#5:
Old depositions by Trump are as different as the old Biden speech. As one of my commentariat(tm) put it: “Trump used to lie more fluidly.”
Men their age should be out golfing and yelling at clouds, not fighting over control of the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/donald-trump-old-age-biden/676052/
It’s better to vote for Biden who isn’t senile than a destructive immature narcissistic creep who’s obviously got dementia