New York Times – Guest Opinion
I Share a Birthday With President Biden. Ask Me About Our Age.
By Clark Hoyt – July 10, 2024
Mr. Hoyt was a reporter, editor, Washington bureau chief and news executive for Knight Ridder and later served as public editor of The Times.
President Biden and I have something in common: We were born on Nov. 20, 1942 — he in Scranton, Pa., I in Providence, R.I.
He and I once even joked about it, long before anyone could suggest we were too old for our jobs. He was vice president of the United States. I was a journalist.
Mr. Biden is having a very hard time right now, and I get it. That awkward, stiff walk of his? The White House physician says it’s the result of “wear and tear” on his spine. Tell me about it. I’ve had to get shots into my spine to alleviate excruciating pain caused by a collapsed vertebra.
The president and I share other health issues common for folks our age. We each have atrial fibrillation, an occasionally irregular heartbeat that can lead to a stroke. We take Eliquis for it. (Thank goodness for Medicare for me, the White House Physician’s office for him. It’s an expensive drug.) We also suffer from sleep apnea, which can make you wake up over and over, snorting and choking, leaving you tired and unable to focus during the day. We’re both being treated with continuous positive airway pressure that involves wearing a mask attached to a machine by the bed that pumps air into you all night. My wife laughingly calls me Mr. Hose Head.
There’s more, but you get the point: Aging isn’t fun. We do what we can. Mr. Biden works out five days a week. I work with a trainer twice a week and walk at least 10,000 steps a day. None of our physical problems would be disqualifying, perhaps, even for the most demanding job there is. Yeah, that gait might be embarrassing for the leader of the free world, but it’s not disqualifying. But there’s another aspect to getting old that few of us like to admit. It’s the mental decline that goes with the physical.
For nearly half a century I was a journalist, reporting and editing the news. Put me at a keyboard and the prose flowed. Now there are good days and bad — days when I know the word I’m searching for but just can’t bring it up from the La Brea Tar Pit of memory. Sometimes, if I sit for a few minutes, it will pop out. Other times I have to resort to tricks — googling what I think might be synonyms or, when that doesn’t work, reconstructing the whole sentence to circumvent the missing piece. When reading a news story I’ll often find myself asking “Who?” when someone’s last name appears on second reference. Worse are those days when I read an entire page of a book and realize I haven’t absorbed a bit of it.
Oh, the so-called executive function — the mental skills that allow me to manage everyday life — works just fine. I know where I am, what day it is, remember appointments and upcoming social engagements and handle the myriad details of getting through the day, even if my energy is sometimes gone by the end of it. But I’m not president of the United States, with the weight of the world on my shoulders.
Oops. I forgot to mention that I retired nine years ago, at 72. I was sure I had plenty left to contribute, but it was time to pass the responsibility to the next generation. I’ve kept busy, editing projects for a nonprofit news site for a couple of years, and now I’m working with my wife, also a retired journalist, on a nonfiction book about the terrible consequences of nuclear testing.
Watching the president’s debate with Donald Trump last month, I couldn’t help wondering sometimes if he even knew where he was and what was going on — that slack-jawed, vacant stare, the thin, raspy voice, the inability to articulate clear thoughts or parry the flood of falsehoods flowing from his opponent. This sure wasn’t the Joe Biden I recall spending an evening with a decade or so ago. Back then, we were in a relaxed setting at the Washington apartment of John Marttila, Mr. Biden’s longtime political adviser and strategist. Mr. Biden at the end of a grueling day was sharp, funny, empathetic, clear in his arguments about why the United States needed to get out of Afghanistan. His voice was strong, with no hint of the childhood stutter that pops up from time to time.
The president and the White House have floated a number of excuses for the debate fiasco. He just had an off night. He had a cold and was exhausted. He’d recently traveled across multiple time zones and was suffering jet lag. The aides helping him get ready had stuffed him too full of facts and statistics. Yet those off nights seem to be happening more frequently, and now there are reports he’s asking that nothing be scheduled after 8 p.m. — forget that the White House issued a statement saying that the president is capable of acting “with sharpness and resolve, every moment of every day.” Exhausted from a cold? He sounded just great the very next day, reading from a teleprompter. Too much travel before the debate? He’d been back in the Eastern time zone for 11 days, resting and preparing for those 90 minutes we’d all love to forget.
I can’t say his interview that aired Friday night with a sympathetic George Stephanopoulos on ABC News was reassuring. Asked if he’d watched the debate afterward, the president replied, “I don’t think I did, no.” Really? He doesn’t clearly remember that?
No, there comes a time. For each of us, it’s individual. Mr. Biden has a decision to make. He’s a decent, honorable, principled man with a long record of accomplishment. At this late date, only he can decide whether continuing his re-election campaign risks everything — especially his reputation for selfless public service and, should he lose to a convicted felon with contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law, the very future of our Republic.
We should learn from this and never again have to face a presidential election with two candidates many Americans believe are too old for the rigors of the job. Mr. Trump is only three years younger than Mr. Biden and has been showing plenty of signs of mental slippage himself, something largely overlooked and needing far more attention.
We need to consider a constitutional amendment setting upper age limits for elected federal officials, especially president and vice president. Huge majorities in both parties favor it. There should be vigorous discussion about the precise limit, but a starting point could be to declare that candidates are ineligible to run if they’re going to be older than 75 at the end of their term. And I’d say the age limit should apply to federal appointees as well, including judges and justices of the Supreme Court.
The question of age in the highest office won’t be resolved even if President Biden decides to step aside for a younger Democratic candidate — something he’s so far adamantly resisting. And Mr. Trump, who would be 82 at the end of his second term, is staying in the race.
It might be too late for this election now, but it isn’t too late to start a constructive conversation about leadership and age. Our society needs to be confident that those entrusted with the most powerful offices in the land at a time of unrelenting challenges are up to the task.
More on President Biden:
The Editorial Board:The Democratic Party Must Speak the Plain Truth to the President – July 8, 2024
Rachael Bedard: The Struggles of President Biden and the Truth About Aging: July 5, 2024
Frank Bruni: Biden Cannot Go On Like This – June 28, 2024
Clark Hoyt was a reporter, editor, Washington bureau chief and news executive for Knight Ridder and later served as public editor of the Times.