The Presidents Cognitive Decline
As age factors more urgently in politics, a simple test could evaluate who remains fit for office.
Remember these numbers. Youll be asked about them at the end of the test: 70, 73, 76, and 78.
These are the ages of the leading candidates in the 2020 presidential election: Elizabeth Warren, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and Bernie Sanders, respectively. In most any other line of work, people in their eighth decade are usually retired. For most of human historyand still in most of the world todaypeople of this age were usually dead.
Last month, Jimmy Carter, the 95-year-old former U.S. president, said that the office requires a person to be very flexible with mind, and that by age 80 he wouldnt have felt able to do the job. He joined the growing ranks of those suggesting they would support an upper age limit for the office, either for purposes of breaking up the gerontocracy or to ensure a person has the physical and cognitive capacity. You have to be able to go from one subject to another and concentrate on each one adequately and then put them together in a comprehensive way, Carter said.
At a conceptual level, any hard cutoff introduces a host of problems. Beyond meriting charges of age discrimination, age cutoffs are difficult to defend on practical grounds. An age minimum might rule out, say, an illiterate 4-year-old, but its at least hypothetically possible that a 110-year-old might be perfectly able.
Birthday Time: Biden Turns 78 Will Be Oldest Us President
WASHINGTON President-elect Joe Biden turned 78 on Friday. In two months, hell take the reins of a politically fractured nation facing the worst public health crisis in a century, high unemployment and a reckoning on racial injustice.
As he wrestles with those issues, Biden will be attempting to accomplish another feat: demonstrating to Americans that age is but a number and hes up to the job.
Biden will be sworn in as the oldest president in the nations history, displacing Ronald Reagan, who left the White House in 1989 when he was 77 years and 349 days old.
The president-elect spent his birthday in Delaware at work on the government transition, including a meeting with Congress top two Democrats: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer. During the closed-door portion of the meeting, Pelosi presented Biden with a white orchid, one of her signature flowers, an aide said.
The age and health of both Biden and President Donald Trump less than four years Bidens junior loomed throughout a race that was decided by a younger and more diverse electorate and at a moment when the nation is facing no shortage of issues of consequence.
Out of the gate, Biden will be keen to demonstrate hes got the vigor to serve.
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Still, some allies and Democrats privately worry that Biden may not be able to handle the rigors of another campaign.
A bone he broke in his foot while playing with his dog in late November 2020 still occasionally bothers Biden, resulting in a slower and shorter gait. And the White House has largely abandoned using the Oval Office for press events in part because it cant be permanently equipped with a teleprompter Biden aides prefer the fake White House stage built in the Old Executive Office Building next door for events, sacrificing some of the power of the historic backdrop in favor of an otherwise sterile room that was outfitted with an easily read teleprompter screen.
And if Biden were to run again in 2024, it almost certainly would be a more rigorous campaign than the one he previously mounted. The outbreak of Covid kept Biden in his Delaware home for much of the 2020 general election campaign, sparing him the wear and tear of relentless travel.
As for Trump, the issues are not related to physical health so much as psychological conditioning. He wants to run, those who know him say, but wants to be sure he will win.
I always said that he would run if Biden is under 44 or 43 but if Biden is at 46, 47, he will pass, said Bryan Lanza, a GOP strategist and former Trump campaign official. Right now he is at 41 so I have to say yes right now there has to be a dramatic turning out in Biden numbers for him to pass.
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Donald Trump’s Chances Vs Joe Biden If He Runs Again In 2024
A number of bookmakers are naming Donald Trump as their favorite to win the 2024 presidential election if he runs, but several polls suggest it is still neck-and-neck between him and Joe Biden in a hypothetical match-up.
According to OddsChecker, which aggregates betting odds from numerous sources, Trump is the favorite to be the next president by several bookmakers including Paddy Power and Betfairwho are offering odds of 11/4as well as Bet365 and SkyBet .
In comparison, Paddy Power and Betfair are offering 9/2 odds on Biden winning the 2024 election, with Bet365 and SkyBet offering 5/1.
Trump has not formally announced that he intends on running for president again, but he has hinted at it from the moment he left the White House in January 2021.
The suggestion that Trump could beat Biden in a hypothetical 2024 match-up has been backed by a recent Emerson College poll conducted on May 24 and 25.
According to those taking part in the survey, 44 percent said they would vote for Trump in 2024, and 42 percent said they would back Biden if they were the two candidates.
The poll also shows that Biden’s approval rating remains low at 38 percent, down from 42 percent in an April survey.
The Emerson College poll reveals Biden’s job approval is lowest among white voters at 33 percent, and highest among Black voters at 61 percent.
Who Were The Oldest Presidents
Before President Biden was sworn in on Wednesday, President Donald J. Trump held the record for the countrys oldest chief executive. He was 70 in January 2017, when he became the 45th president.
Before him, President Ronald Reagan was the oldest president. He was 69 in 1981 when he was inaugurated for his first term.
In a debate with Walter Mondale during his 1984 re-election campaign, Mr. Reagan made light of the issue of age.
I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign, he said. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponents youth and inexperience.
Mr. Reagan was 77 after his second term, the oldest president to leave office.
More than a century before him, William Henry Harrison held the distinction of being the oldest president at the time, when he was inaugurated in 1841 at age 68. Mr. Harrison, who had caught a cold that developed into pneumonia, died after 32 days in office. He became the first president to die in office and to date, has served the shortest tenure in U.S. presidential history.
At 96, Jimmy Carter is the oldest living former president.
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Even Without Covid This Is Concerning
Baby Boomers get a lot of flak for dominating U.S. culture, business and politics since the 1970s. But Biden, McConnell, Pelosi, and Clyburn are pre-boomers, belonging to the Silent Generation. The last three were potty-training before the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor.
If Biden wins in November, he will have reached the average life expectancy just in time for his inauguration. Hell be the oldest president ever to take office, a record currently held by Donald Trump.
Even without COVID-19, this is concerning.
Anyone who watched Biden as vice president knows that hes lost several steps. Since the 2020 campaign began, he regularly loses his train of thought, mangles common words and appears adrift.
While Trump has been more physically energetic, his detractors have consistently pushed rumors that hes also in mental decline. If Donald Trump were your father, psychologist John Gartner wrote, you would run, not walk, to a neurologist for an evaluation of his cognitive health.
Americas come a long way. The signers of the Declaration of Independence had an average age of 40. Put all the U.S. presidents together and youll get an average age of 55.
The Slow Your Bodys Clock Series
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
President Trump is 74 years old, and former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will be 78 in November. But biologically, Biden is likely younger
Trumps older biological age could explain why he was infected with COVID last Thursday, and ended up in a hospital for three days. Most people were not surprised that Trump got infected due to his resistance towards social distancing and wearing masks. Continuously, he campaigned in big crowds with no precautions, and not requiring attendees to wear masks. One retiree said she was surprised that he didnt get COVID sooner.
The immediate cause for Trumps COVID was he got it from his senior aide, Hope Hicks. However, the long-term causes for Trump are more apparent. Hes male, 74, and overweight: all high-risk factors for COVID. According to statistics, males account for 15% of COVID deaths. According to Science, an online journal, many of the sickest COVID-19 patients have been people who are obese. Those over 60 belong to the vulnerable age group for COVID.Theres a clock in our body, and not just our brain, but every organ of our body. They all have their own timetables. Our cells have lives of their own. But if we abuse our bodies, which Trump does a lot, our bodies would lose their ability to fight against diseases due to self-destructive impulses.
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Foundation And Rise Of The Party
In 1995, Republicans took control of the , largely on the strength of the “”, which recognized and promised to deal with many of the issues Perot’s voters had mobilized to support in 1992. However, two of the major provisions failed to secure the two-thirds congressional majorities required to be submitted to the states.
Dissatisfied, the grassroots organizations that had made Perot’s 1992 candidacy possible began to band together to found a intended to rival the Republicans and Democrats. For legal reasons, the party ended up being called the “Reform Party” . A drive to get the party on the ballot in all fifty states succeeded, although it ended with lawsuits in some regions over state requirements. In a few areas, minor parties became incorporated as state party organizations.
Misogyny And Allegations Of Sexual Misconduct
Trump has a history of insulting and belittling women when speaking to media and on social media. He made lewd comments, demeaned women’s looks, and called them names, such as ‘dog’, ‘crazed, ‘crying lowlife’, ‘face of a pig’, or ‘horseface’.
In October 2016, two days before the second presidential debate, a 2005 “hot mic” recording surfaced in which Trump is heard bragging about kissing and groping women without their consent, saying “when you’re a star, they let you do it, you can do anything… grab ’em by the pussy.” The incident’s widespread media exposure led to Trump’s first public apology during the campaign and caused outrage across the political spectrum.
At least twenty-six women, including his first wife, have publicly accused Trump of sexual misconduct. There were allegations of rape, violence, being kissed and groped without consent, looking under women’s skirts, and walking in on naked pageant contestants. In 2016, he denied all accusations, calling them “false smears” and alleging a conspiracy against him and the American people.
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Not All About Politics
Hey Jerry, why are ALL of your columns about politics? Dont you ever write about anything else? asked Lenny F., of Tinley Park, Illinois.
Lenny, not all of my columns are about politics though it may seem like it this past year. I write five columns a week, exploring all kinds of subjects. You can find my work at . Or on my .
To my other readers, it should be noted that Lenny is 42 years old.
Trump Election Probe Grand Jury Hears From Raffensperger
Jeff Amy And Kate Brumback
Associated Press
ATLANTA Georgias top elections official appeared Thursday before a special grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to meddle in the 2020 election in the state.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was summoned to the Fulton County courthouse where the special grand jury has been meeting, according to a subpoena obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request. Other subpoenas seek documents and testimony from five other people in his office.
Raffensperger arrived at the courthouse in downtown Atlanta on Thursday morning. When a reporter asked how the day would go, Raffensperger replied hopefully short” as he walked up the steps. That wasn’t the case, though. Raffensperger left after more than five hours by another exit, avoiding reporters. It’s unclear if Raffensperger’s testimony concluded Thursday or if he will be called back.
Trump directed his ire at his fellow Republican after Raffensperger refused to bend to pressure to overturn the votes that gave Democrat Joe Biden a narrow presidential election victory in Georgia. Raffensperger defeated a Trump-endorsed challenger in last month’s Republican primary.
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When Is Donald Trump’s Birthday And How Old Is He
Trump was born on June 14, 1946, which means he turned 75 at the beginning of this week. Born to Frederick Christ Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York City, Trump is the second-youngest of five children. He was preceded by Maryanne, Fred Jr. and Elizabeth and followed by younger brother Robert.
Fred Jr. died from a heart attack in 1981 at the age of 42, while Robert died in August last year at the age of 71.
Us House Of Representatives
Pence rejuvenated his political career by running for the U.S. House of Representatives again in 2000, this time winning the seat in after six-year incumbent opted to run for governor of Indiana. The district comprises all or portions of 19 counties in eastern Indiana. As a congressman, Pence adopted the slogan he had used on the radio, describing himself as “a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order”. While in Congress, Pence belonged to the .
In his first year in office, Pence opposed President ‘s in 2001, as well as President Bush’s Medicare prescription drug expansion the following year. Pence was re-elected four more times by comfortable margins. In the , , and House elections, he defeated Democrat .
- : Foreign Affairs, Judiciary
In 2008, magazine listed Pence as one of the ten best members of Congress, writing that Pence’s “unalloyed traditional conservatism has repeatedly pitted him against his party elders.” Pence was mentioned as a possible Republican candidate for president in and . In September 2010, he was the top choice for president in a straw poll conducted by the . That same year, he was encouraged to run against incumbent Democratic senator , but opted not to enter the race, even after Bayh unexpectedly announced that he would retire.
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