That question hovers over American politics because Joe Biden reached that milestone last weekend, the first octogenarian in our history to occupy the White House.
Moreover, Biden said recently: "My intention is that I will run again," and he'd be 86 if he served a full eight years. Donald Trump, at 76, has already announced his bid for another term, and he'd be 82 in 2028.
There are two answers to the "too old" question. One is physical capacity, and experts on aging agree that if an individual remains in good health, they are fully capable of serving as president well into their 80s.
"People in their 80s commonly experience declines; we shouldn't be naive about that," Lisa Berkman, a professor of public policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, told The New York Times. "And at the same time, there is so much variability. People who are doing well and are in the top level of functioning have the odds of going for another 10 years, of doing really well during this time and making very important contributions."
The other answer is political, not physical. Just because a person can govern in their 80s, it's fair to ask: Should they? Or is it better for the country for them to step aside and allow younger, fresher leadership to emerge? A recent Reuters poll found that 86% of Americans believe the "cutoff for serving as president should be age 75 or younger."
I have a vested interest in the physical question, since I'm only four months younger than Biden. Like the president, I forget names and fumble words, but Joe and I have both benefited from scientific and medical advances. When we were born, the life expectancy for an American male was 66. Today, it's more than 77, and if you hit 80, you can generally expect to live another eight years.
"An 80-year-old today and an 80-year-old 20 years ago represent different pockets of individuals; they're not directly comparable," Dan Belsky, assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University told The Washington Post. "Today there are many physically active, cognitively healthy 80-year-olds, taking classes, running around, governing."
Indeed, aging could be an advantage to a president. Reaction times grow longer, but experience — even wisdom — can also expand. Joe Verghese, a gerontologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, summarized this view in the Post: "Most of the major decisions that I can think of that have affected this country haven't been split-second decisions; they would have been decisions that required consensus-building, taking input of people, and I think age gives you a bit of greater ability to do that."
So from a purely physical perspective, age alone should not disqualify any octogenarian from seeking the presidency. But politics is another matter entirely.
It's baked into our DNA as a nation to thrive on the dreams and daring of the young. When John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural address, "The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans," he wasn't just talking about his own cohort, the veterans of World War II. He was expressing a basic impulse to keep passing the torch, to keep renewing the American spirit.
The pioneers who explored the West, and the astronauts who explored the moon, were not old people. Yes, wisdom comes with age, but vitality comes with youth. The new prime minister of Great Britain, Rishi Sunak, is 42. The prime minister of Finland, Sanna Marin, is 37.
The average age of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was 44, but more than a dozen of them were 35 or younger. Thomas Jefferson was 32 when he wrote the declaration. As historian David McCullough has said, "At the time of the revolution, they were all young. It was a young man's-young woman's cause."
Innovation of all kinds has always been a young person's cause. Mark Zuckerberg imagined Facebook in his Harvard dorm room. Bill Gates dropped out of college and founded Microsoft at age 19. Sergey Brin and Larry Page were ancient by comparison when they created Google at 25.
This is the problem for Democrats, however: Biden might still be their best hope for defeating Trump. And if he retires, who replaces him? No one from the next generation seems ready to pick up that torch. To paraphrase the great Paul Simon: "Where have you gone, John F. Kennedy? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you ..."
Steven Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. He can be contacted by email at stevecokie@gmail.com. The views expressed in this column are those of the author.
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