For a young country, the United States sure has old leaders.
The oldest president in history, Joe Biden is running for a second term that would end when he is 86. His most likely Republican challenger, ex-President Donald Trump is a spring chicken by comparison at 77. But if he gets a second spell in the Oval Office, Trump would be well into his 80s by the time it came to a close.
The risks of having elderly leaders was underscored in a poignant moment involving another of Washington's aging power brokers -- 81-year-old Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday.
For the second time this summer, McConnell froze in the middle of a press conference, staring ahead silently for around 30 painful seconds. His misfortune immediately revived questions about his health and age -- especially since he suffered a concussion in a fall earlier this year. His office insisted that the veteran had simply been feeling "momentarily lightheaded."
McConnell is not the only senator who has faced concerns about age. California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, 90, has been ill and shown apparent confusion in public, leading some in her party to call for her to step aside.
Voters appear to be getting worried. An Associated Press-NORC survey released this week found that 77% of Americans think Biden is too old to be effective for four more years. Remarkably, in an age where major questions divide on party lines, 69% of Democrats shared that view. Only about half of US adults, however, expressed the same concern about Trump, whose already frenetic behavior and moments of incoherency seem somehow to obscure questions about his age.
Age is already an issue in the 2024 campaign. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican candidate, for instance, is proposing a mental competency test for politicians over the age of 75 as she beseeches Americans in her GOP primary campaign to embrace a new generation of leadership. Her scheme would apply to both Biden and -- conveniently -- to GOP front-runner Trump.
It is one thing for a powerful senator to have a scare. The presidency is on another level, however. Should Biden experience a similar moment to McConnell, questions about the continuity of US leadership would reverberate around the world and offer potential openings for US adversaries. And any kind of incident that makes Biden look old or confused could be a huge problem for his reelection campaign.
Still, youth is not always what it's cracked up to be. One reason why politicians like Biden and McConnell are still on the stage is that they've survived -- literally and politically -- for so long. That's already proof that they know plenty of tricks their younger foes haven't quite yet mastered.
Both veterans of decades in Washington might also subscribe to a maxim attributed to the US founding father, diplomat, scientist, writer and wit Benjamin Franklin, which might be apocryphal but is far too good to check.
"I wake up every morning at nine and grab for the morning paper. Then I look at the obituary page. If my name is not on it, I get up."
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