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PrintFebruary 21, 2024
2024: The battle of the oldies?
Remember when they said that Ronald Reagan was too old to be president?
He turned 70 a couple of weeks after inauguration. Or Bob Dole? He was 73 when he ran in 1996.
The latest from the campaign trail is "mental acuity" or a fancy way of describing a person’s ability to reason, focus, and recall information at optimum speeds.
Let's add Professor Paul Quirk from the University of British Columbia to the conversation.
This is what he said via the Daily Mail:
Both candidates have come under fire for mental slip-ups in recent weeks - Trump confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi, while a damning report described Biden, 81, as an 'elderly man with a limited memory.'Quirk said: 'From the standpoint of the campaign, Biden's age should be less of an issue than Trump's more apparent cognitive decline - displayed in slurred speech and gross, repeated errors in one campaign rally after another.'Although Trump's decline is more obvious, Quirk said, Biden's is equally worrying: 'The legitimate concern about Biden's age is that by the end of a second term, he would be almost five years older than he is now.'There is obvious potential for serious cognitive failure by then.'And if it occurred, the real danger is that Biden would fail to recognize it, and refuse to let his vice president take over.'Quirk's assessment follows a series of slip-ups that have called both Trump and Biden's mental fitness into question.
Wow. Maybe a future Theodore White will write a book about the election. He can call it: The Election of 2024 or The Battle of the Oldies.
Obviously I am not a doctor or expert. All I can do is watch these two men on T.V. and draw a personal conclusion. Based on what I see, I see more problems with Mr. Biden. I am not just talking about messing up words but rather the way he moves or the appearance of a man who looks totally lost. On the other hand, Mr. Trump has made a few mistakes but he keeps a fast campaign pace and handles questions quickly.
So how do we settle the battle of mental acuity? How do the American people see it? I think that a one on one debate is a must here and the earlier the better. My guess is that the Biden team will refuse but it would settle the battle of the oldies.
