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Earlier this week, President Biden celebrated his 81st birthday. He jocularly pardoned a few Thanksgiving turkeys on the White Home garden. Later, on Instagram, he joked about turning 146, and on Threads, he posted a photograph of himself sitting with a blazing cake.
“To the employees on the birthday candle manufacturing unit,” he wrote, “I hope your union obtained you time beyond regulation.”
That Biden is snug joking about his age so publicly is a constructive flip of occasions. Embracing his standing as America’s oldest president helps defang the first GOP line of assault towards him: too outdated, too feeble.
Opinion Columnist
Robin Abcarian
“Whoever determined to make a joke out of his age wants a increase,” commented one in all his Instagram followers.
Certainly.
His critics, not surprisingly, had been in no temper to congratulate the birthday boy.
The Wall Avenue Journal has been obsessive about Biden’s age for years. This regardless of the superior age of its just-retired chairman, Rupert Murdoch, who stepped down in September on the age of 92. The truth is, after Murdoch retired, the Journal raved about his stewardship in an editorial web page sendoff with nary a point out of his age.
In contrast, the Journal’s birthday present to the a lot youthful Biden was a slap within the face. Citing his “age and apparent decline,” it opined, “Operating for re-election in his situation is an act of profound selfishness.”
IJBOL, as the children say.
The concept that Biden is just too outdated or infirm to achieve a second time period is laughable.
Over the course of his presidency, because the nation has emerged from the devastating pandemic, Biden has amassed an enviable document of accomplishment. However in voters’ minds the unhealthy information appears to blot out the nice, and when pollsters ask if his age is a matter most say sure.
The financial system is robust, however Biden’s approval scores are low. Though inflation has dropped, voters appear in charge him for undermining their shopping for energy. Unemployment is at document lows, however mortgage rates of interest have soared.
The nation is in a bitter temper for a lot of causes, together with the dysfunction and brutal partisanship in Washington, the wars in Ukraine and the Center East, mass shootings and the wrestle over reproductive rights. Add to that the angst over Biden’s age.
The hand-wringing is very annoying while you take into consideration that the Republican more than likely to face him in 2024 is simply three years his junior.
Biden is slender and lively, whereas former President Trump is jowly and out of form. Biden rides a motorbike and does yoga. Trump eats quick meals. As an American, I discovered it embarrassing in 2017 when Trump rode in a golf cart in Taormina, Sicily, at a G-7 assembly, whereas all the opposite world leaders strolled up a hill on foot.
Leaving bodily situation apart, Trump, who’s going through 91 felony counts and 4 simultaneous courtroom battles, can barely string a coherent sentence collectively. He yammers on about “golden showers” and left-wing “vermin” at marketing campaign rallies, sucks as much as dictators and vows to imprison his political enemies.
“Trump’s tendency to bluster has in all probability additionally helped conceal his getting older,” David A. Graham wrote within the Atlantic this week. “Biden’s tone of voice is tender and generally sluggish; he sounds outdated, in a easy aural sense. If you happen to have a look at what Trump is saying, particularly written out, a lot of it’s unintelligible.”
And anyway, why is politics the realm of American life the place fake hysteria about age is so rampant?
Sure, in fact, ours is a youth-worshiping tradition. However go searching. Outdated of us nonetheless have it.
These days, the leisure pages have been awash in glowing tales about its elder achievers.
The 80-year-old director Michael Mann, whose new film is a few important second within the lifetime of the nice Italian automaker Enzo Ferrari, as an illustration.
“A way of fandom and fervor across the director has by no means been greater,” wrote my colleague Mark Olsen this month, “with a youthful technology of film followers attaching itself to his style reinventions, impeccable craft and philosophical explorations of masculinity.”
Wait a minute. How come nobody is carping that Mann is just too outdated to be directing films?
And what about that well-preserved icon, Jane Fonda, 85, who starred in 4 films this yr — “80 for Brady,” “Shifting On,” “Ebook Membership: The Subsequent Chapter” and the animated characteristic “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.” Why aren’t individuals saying she’s too outdated to behave?
Final I checked, nobody was shoving Clint Eastwood offstage into retirement. As a substitute, Warner Bros. employed the 93-year-old to direct the authorized thriller “Juror No. 2,” which just lately resumed manufacturing after the SAG-AFTRA strike ended.
Ridley Scott is 85. His new movie, “Napoleon,” mentioned the Day by day Beast, “is a testomony to Scott’s peerless directorial ability at bringing conventional fight to blistering life.”
Vanessa Redgrave, 86, has 5 upcoming tasks.
The “Oracle of Omaha,” Warren Buffet, at 93, continues to be operating his funding agency Berkshire Hathaway with no plans to retire.
So what offers with the notion that doom, gloom and panic are the fitting responses to the superior age of our present commander in chief?
In response to questions on his age and capability, Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, just lately joked that “80 is the brand new 40.”
Properly, she’s unsuitable. As reams of current commentary and analysis present, 80 is, in reality, the brand new 60.
And completely happy birthday, Mr. President. You’re an oldie however a goodie.
