6 August 2022 — 2116 mdt
Time to guard Biden’s back instead of stabbing it
Is there a time when a political party should take
the keys to the White House from its sitting President?
By James Conner
President Joe Biden is 79. Except for a slight hitch in his step, he’s hale, hearty, and fitter than a good many couch potatoes half his age. Still, he’s the oldest man elected President (the median age for election to the presidency since 1900 is 51 for Democrats, 55 for Republicans) — and that has a few nervous Democrats, and a few mischief making pundits trying to bootstrap a “Should Joe go?” debate, wondering aloud, and much too loudly, whether he should announce he’s not running for re-election.
Republicans, of course, especially Republicans who would like to win back the White House in 2024, have alleged for years that Biden is over the hill, ready for the rocking chair and the Alzheimer’s ward. Donald Trump, the narcissistic sociopath he trounced on 3 November 2020, and Trump’s sycophants, call him “Sleepy Joe,” trying to portray him as a senile old fool who’s being manipulated by Machiavellian aides. They’re having fun, but they’re the only ones taking their insults seriously.
Still, whether an 81-year-old President should run for re-election is a legitimate issue. Would a man that age still have the right stuff at the end of his second term? He certainly could. People past their three score and ten can lose a step but still have more than enough energy and savvy to do their jobs, and to do them well. The next decade is not as kind. Octogenarians tend to decline more steeply and rapidly. But there’s a lot of variation among individuals. That’s why the Constitution does not set a maximum age for Presidents.
In some ways, high performing politicians in their seventies are analogous to hall of fame baseball players in their thirties: not always the players they were in their primes, but still more than good enough to play the game. Ted Williams hit .388 in 1957 when he was 38, knocking 38 balls out of the park, one more than in 1941 when he hit .406. In elective office, Biden is where Williams was at 38.
Williams retired at 41, batting .316, hitting 29 home runs, the last dinger in his last at bat. He could have played at least another year or two at that level. Nolan Ryan, the fireballer who holds MLB’s single season and career strikeouts records, pitched two of his record seven no-hitters when he was 43 and 44, retiring two years later. Mariano Rivera, the Yankee’s legendary closer, posted an ERA of .211 and a WHIP of 1.047 in his last season when he was 43. These performances are, in their own way, the equivalents of high level performances in their eighties by scientists, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, and elected officials. Does the name Arturo Toscanini ring a bell? Hyman Rickover? Warren Buffett? Jimmy Carter? James Michener? Herman Wouk? Tony Fauci? Judy Collins? Pine Top Perkins?
If Biden is still sharp and healthy in 2024, and the odds he will be are considerably higher than his uppity “Time to give up the car keys, Gramps” detractors suppose, he’ll run again. And if he’s running against Herr Trump, or a young Clone of Trump, he’ll be elected to a second term … much to the relief of most Americans.
Would he serve a full second term? We don’t know. Would he be as sharp and energetic at the end of a second term as at the beginning of that term? Possibly not, although the difference might be slight and immaterial to his performance in the job. A President that old would be a new experience for our nation, but the Constitution’s 25th Amendment provides the nation with the power to deal with a President who no longer is capable of performing his job at an acceptable level. And Biden might well decide to step down before his second terms ends.
That’s why I’m not worried about Biden.
But I am worried about Democrats who, increasingly panicked by Biden’s inexplicably low approval ratings, want to sacrifice him on the altar of imagined short term electoral gains. These Democrats, evidently not old enough to know better, are undercutting their President, sabotaging his prospects for re-election, and diminishing their own prospects for winning this year’s midterm election. Time for them to stop committing political suicide by self-fulfilling prophecy. Time for them to guard Biden’s back instead of stabbing it.