National Park

Frank Bruni
Opinion, New York Times
The Overlooked Truths About Biden’s Age
March 28, 2024, 5:07 a.m. ET

By Frank Bruni

In terms of optics and in terms of energy, I wish President Biden were younger. There’s no point in pretending otherwise. And from the casual conversations all around me and the formal polling of voters, I know I’m in robust company. A great many Americans consider his age unideal, and that belief is why there’s no wishing away the focus on it. The swell of attention to it over the past few months is more beginning than end. There are tsunamis yet to come.

Even so, aspects of the subject actually get too little consideration, starting with this crushingly obvious and yet frequently overlooked fact: The presidency isn’t a solo mission. Not even close. It’s a team effort, and the administration that a president puts together matters much, much more than his brawn or his brio.

To listen to the fretting over how many hours a day Biden can vigorously work, how many speeches he can authoritatively deliver and how many miles he can comfortably travel is to get the sense that he’s independently on the hook for the nation’s welfare. That he’s more action figure than decision maker. That, um, he alone can fix it. That he shoulders all the responsibility.

But he’s not Atlas; he’s POTUS. And the president of the United States is only as good as the advisers around him, whose selection reflects presidential judgment, not stamina.

We acknowledge as much when we discuss how a president might fill or has filled his cabinet. We recognize that many vital decisions are made — and that most important policies are realized — outside of the Oval Office.

But that recognition weirdly dissipates when we start tallying Biden’s birthdays. We attach as much weight to digits as to discernment, or we imply that the former wipes out the latter. Yes, age can erode judgment — if a person’s cognitive health is in marked and clear decline. But Biden’s situation is more cloudy than clear, and nothing about it suggests to me that he’d treat governing as cavalierly as Donald Trump would (and did) or assemble a team as ragtag as Trump’s — or, for that matter, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s.

He wouldn’t elevate a conspiracy theorist like the quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was on a short list of potential running mates for Kennedy before, on Tuesday, Kennedy chose Nicole Shanahan, a philanthropist (and vaccine skeptic) with zero experience in public office. He wouldn’t invite anyone as unhinged and reprehensible as Rudy Giuliani, who led Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, into his inner circle.

Yes, Trump is about three and a half years younger and often peppier than Biden. Biden is about 300 times saner and always more principled than Trump. That’s the infinitely more important contrast between the two men, and we should never, not for a nanosecond, sweep it aside.

We should also call nonsense on many of the people who signal or say that Biden’s age is propelling them toward Trump. Obviously, that’s a dynamic for some of them, but it can’t be all that common because it defies common sense. Voters who’d be content to back a version of Biden with more spring in his step and less stammer in his voice have values, priorities and policy leanings that would probably render Trump an unconscionable choice. They’re not going to throw in with Trump because he throws himself around more forcefully.

Really, how many people say to themselves: Heck, Biden may be the guy with a proper respect for democracy, won’t blow air kisses at murderous tyrants and doesn’t sound like a fascist, but that Trump sure can shout louder, talk faster and clomp around more thuddingly! He’ll bring the vim to trashing democracy that Biden can’t muster for preserving it. I guess I’ll go with Trump!

No, many of these Trump supporters like what he’s selling — maybe the lower taxes for corporations and wealthy Americans, maybe the promised crackdown on immigration, maybe the nihilism, maybe just the vitriol — and have found a way to defend a vote for him (Biden’s decrepit!) without fully owning up to it.

In an age of rampant falsity, let’s be honest about that.

tramsey Loc: Texas

I won't vote for Biden because of his many failures. He can talk the talk but unable to walk the walk. I won't vote for Trump even though through all the messes he has made he did do a few thing right. His dishonest business schemes and his general personality just grates me. I liked Nikki but then she had some serious draw backs to. When the time comes I'm going to go with RFK jr. I don't know much about him but I like what he says and how he says it.

National Park

RFK is a conspiracy nut. You will just throw your vote away and help Trump get elected.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

The entire Left wing are conspiracy nuts who pushed the debunked Russia/Trump collusion conspiracy for years. Not to the other conspiracies they pushed and lied about.

National Park

You aren't responding to the opinion piece, which states that BIden may not be as vigorous as Trump, but, unlike Trump, he will appoint qualified people to his administration and will not attempt to tear down democracy.

If youwant to talke about wacko conspiracies, you should note the wacko right wing conspiracy that the election was stolen from Trump. The fact is that no evidence was ever produced that the election was stolen from Trump in spite of more than 60 law suits, investigation after investigation, and recount after recount. None, Nada. Not a drop. And one by one, the conspiracy nuts who were invovled in the conspiracy are starting to pay--Rudy with his multi-million judgement against a couple of election workers who he slandered, as well as Rudy's disbarment, John Eastman about to be disbarred, three attorneys who pleaded guilty a couple months ago: Sidney Powell for illegally accessing voting equipment after the election, Kenneth Chesebro for gathering fake electors who would cast illegitimate votes for Trump, and Jenna Ellis for lying to lawmakers about voter fraud. And now we see Kari Lake declining to contest a defamation charge in an election case in Arizona. And still others under indictment.

Regarding Russia and the 2020 election, if you don't believe Russia was trying to help Trump get re-elected read not only the Mueller Report, but also the bipartisan, Republican-led Senate report . The Republican-led Senate Report states that Russian President Vladimir Putin directly ordered the hacking of the Democratic Party’s servers with the goal of leaking damaging information that would hurt then-candidate Hillary Clinton and provide a boost to President Trump’s campaign. The report found “no evidence of collusion between Trump and the Russians,” but did find that Trump campaign staff tried to benefit politically from the leaks by seeking “advance notices about WikiLeaks releases, creating messaging strategies to promote and share the materials in anticipation of and following the release, and encouraging further leaks.” The report also found that several top members of the 2016 Trump campaign staff posed grave national security risks to the U.S. over their ties to Russia, including Trump’s former 2016 campaign chair, Paul Manafort, who was a “grave counterintelligence threat” due to his contacts with a Russian intelligence officer. The Report shows that sufficient evidence existed for the FBI to begin an investigation into Trump-Russian collusion.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

Because the author was making a little sense until he said Biden is 300 times saner than Trump. That’s just hogwash and he just discredited his whole opinion piece.

National Park

I agree with you on that that was hogwash. Biden is clearly at least 500 or 600 times saner than Trump, who has Narcissistic Personalty Disorder to the max.

McKinneyMike Loc: Texas

You and Trump share similar beliefs. If I could buy you or him for what your worth and sell for what you think you are worth I would be a rich man!

Texcaster Loc: Queensland

"Bing! Bing! Bing! Bong!" ... you need a new crutch there Curly.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

You and Pedo Biden share similar beliefs, almost exactly the same.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

Lolo ya if you believe that BS, I don’t know what I can do for you. I can’t help you.

National Park

If you don't think Trump has narcissistic derangement syndrome then I have a bridge in Baltimore for sale to you.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

You’re deflecting again. My argument was not about that argument is about him saying by the 300 times sooner than Trump. But to answer your question, of course Trump is a narcissistic Person. He always has been he always will be.

Texcaster Loc: Queensland

Rat Boy - "But to answer your question, of course Trump is a narcissistic Person. He always has been he always will be."

... but what? That's not a deal breaker for you to have sex with him? What?

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Says a lot about you.