Is US President Joe Biden too old?

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Next November, Joe Biden will be 80 years old. Oldest president in American history, ahead of Donald Trump (75 today) and Ronald Reagan (77 at the end of his second term), the tenant of the White House – who is celebrating his first year in office January 20 – is not only old; he “looks” old, including for his age.

Victim of two ruptured aneurysms in 1988, the septuagenarian has a fragile heart and memory lapses. He happened to say “Donald Trump” instead of “Vladimir Putin” and to speak of “President Harris” to evoke his vice-president. In a G7 summit, he confused Libya with Syria. Another day it was Covid and Covax. It even happens that Biden, looking haggard, utters meaningless sentences while mumbling. Last September, in videoconference, he no longer remembered the name of his interlocutor – Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

There is a lack of leadership within the Democratic Party

Ultra-aggressive campaigns on social networks and conservative channels (Fox News, Newsmax) strive to demonstrate, with supporting videos, that “Uncle Joe” yoyotes. Modest, the Democratic media avoid the question. This will be blamed on them. Because to wonder about the health of the rulers is legitimate, especially when it comes to the one who has to stand up to Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. Besides, the Americans have an opinion on the subject.

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According to a poll, only 40% of voters believe that “Joe Biden is healthy”, while 50% refute this assertion. A difference of 10 points (against him), which is huge. A year ago, it was 29 points, but in the opposite direction.

Like the Soviet Union at the end of the mandate of Leonid Brezhnev, who was 75 when he died in 1982, the United States has the air of a gerontocracy. To the septuagenarians Trump and Biden we must add Chuck Schumers, the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate aged 71, but also his counterpart from the same camp Nancy Pelosi, who chairs the House of Representatives (she will be 82 at the end of March) or even the Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders who turned 80 last September.

It is an understatement to say that Joe Biden lacks grip. “If he had any, he would impose his leadership on the Democratic Party, remarks Françoise Coste, a specialist in American domestic politics. He would bang his fist on the table to bring Joe Manchin and Kirsten Synema into line, the two Democratic senators who are blocking his reforms. Instead, he is being trodden on. With all the money Washington is transferring to their respective states – Virginia and Arizona – under the Infrastructure Act, he has a case for twist their arm.”

In politics, energy and temperament are assets that count. Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan, but also Nicolas Sarkozy, have amply demonstrated this. Any other president than Joe Biden would spend his time today crisscrossing America to provide after-sales service for his $1.2 trillion “infrastructure plan” in order to derive political benefit from it as the legislative elections of next November. Joe Biden doesn’t seem to have that strength. And, curiously, no one thinks of sending Kamala Harris, as unpopular as him, to replace him in the field.

Joe Biden’s entourage, whose trips are rare, say he is in great shape and “lifts cast iron” every morning during his gym hour. He himself says he will run again in 2024. This seems unrealistic. “He does seem to have some minor problems related to his age, admits New York political scientist Andrew J. Polsky, who is not suspicious of sympathy for his opponent Donald Trump. In politics, age, at a moment, becomes a limiting factor.” But assuming he runs for re-election, Biden would be 86 at the end of his second term.

Among the Democrats, the frustration of the rising generation

The president obviously cannot announce that he will not stand again. This would instantly make him what Americans call a “lame duck”, i.e. a weak and demonetized leader, like American presidents at the end of their second term who have not the right to represent themselves. And as long as he remains in the race, no other Democratic candidate can declare himself. This inevitably generates frustration among future suitors, forced to bite the bullet.

“If the legislative elections of midterms (mid-term) turn into a debacle for the Democrats next November, continues Polsky, then, the rising generation will be able to attack Joe Biden by attributing the responsibility for the failure to him. “There are still three years left before the end of the mandate of the latter, and the most impatient already find the time long.