President Joe Biden turned 81 years old on Nov. 20, the oldest president in U.S. history. If re-elected, Biden would be 86 at the end of his second term.
GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, now 77, would be 82 by the end of his second term of office.
An August AP poll found 77% of Americans say Biden is too old for another term, including 69% of Democrats, 74% of independents, and 89% of Republicans.
The same survey found a majority of Americans (51%) found Trump too old.
By “too old” voters mean Biden is too physically and mentally impaired by particular effects of aging to do the job. He’s perceived as a weak leader, Trump looks strong by comparison.
Biden limits his public schedule and is scripted by reading from a teleprompter. Still, he rambles and makes serious verbal policy gaffes.
“Biden will not be able to govern and campaign in the manner of previous incumbents,” Politico reported Nov. 13. “He simply does not have the capacity to do it, and his staff doesn’t trust him to even try.”
Given Biden’s obvious decline, he will want to replicate his 2020 Wilmington basement strategy running for re-election in 2024 this time from the White House.
But if he can’t wage a presidential campaign Biden can’t handle four more years of the grueling job of being president – with crises around the globe and at home.
It’s selfish of Biden’s family and staff to run again. But, Biden would be required to support Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. Harris has demonstrated a lack of depth, seriousness and humility.
Biden was more interested in checking race and gender boxes than in selecting a running mate who would be effective and successful as vice president.
Biden has a favorability rating of –14.7 according to the RCP polling average, but Harris’ rating is an even worse –18.1.
The 10 most recent polls find an unpopular Trump (favorability rating –15) leading Biden. The public is fed up with high prices, crime, an insecure border, and foreign crises.
Democrats are in a panic. David Axelrod, former chief adviser to Barack Obama, acknowledges Biden could well lose and asks “whether it’s in HIS best interest or the country’s” to run again.
Republicans should be worried about Trump as well.
Trump’s insulting jibes and absurd boasts have been part of his political persona since 2015.
This year his juvenile name-calling targets Nikki Haley as “birdbrain” and Ron DeSantis as “DeSantimonious” among other bullying taunts.
But Trump has been spinning in the unhinged zone.
In September, Trump on his Truth Social suggested Gen. Mark Milley, the nation’s highest military officer, deserves execution – as in death.
He said NBC should be investigated for treason and the FBI should raid the homes of Senate Democrats. He accused Biden of being manipulated by “the fascists in the White House.”
Trump also uses Truth Social to amplify unhinged posts from others, including one calling the 2021 Capitol riot a “Fedsurrection,” involving Antifa leftists in MAGA disguise, and “the Deep State coordinated their actions through proxies.” Trump passed this lunacy on to his millions of followers.
At a New Hampshire rally on Veterans Day, Trump called his domestic political enemies “vermin” and suggested they pose a greater threat to the United States than countries such as Russia, China or North Korea.
Trump ranted to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”
If Trump is nominated again his every word will get attention – that’s the baggage Republicans will carry – unless they nominate Haley or DeSantis.
DeSantis has a favorability rating of – 12.8.
Haley, on the other hand, is the only national political leader with a positive favorability rating, +0.6. She’s the Republican most likely to win next November.
E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.