President Biden's age was in the news again last week, largely thanks to a front-page Wall Street Journal article announcing, “Behind closed doors, Biden shows signs of slipping.”
The story was less sensational than the headline. He quoted Republican Kevin McCarthy, former House speaker from Bakersfield, as saying the president “is not the same person” he was a decade ago. He quoted the current speaker, Mike Johnson (R-La.), as saying that Biden, in a meeting, “appeared to misinterpret” his own policy on natural gas.
But here's a Washington secret you already knew: McCarthy and Johnson, staunch opponents of the Democratic president, are not reliable narrators here.
The real story is both obvious and elusive. At 81 years old, the president shows signs of his age. He walks unsteadily due to spinal arthritis. Once voluble, his words now sometimes get tangled when he speaks. He often gets names and details wrong, although he has done so for years.
“What you see on TV is what you get,” Republican Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho told the Journal. “These people who keep talking about what a dynamo he is behind closed doors? “They have to take it out behind closed doors, because I don't see it.”
That sounds good. Democrats in Congress also say things like that, but not in quotes.
But none of that shows that he is no longer up to the job, and that is the important question.
In a long interview with Time magazine published last week, Biden sounded, again, more or less like he does on television. At one point, he said “Putin,” the name of Russia's president, when he appeared to be referring to China's Xi Jinping. At three points, the transcript says the president's words were “unintelligible.”
On matters of substance, however, he was entirely convincing, often at a detailed level, in explaining his policies on Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Gaza, and China and Taiwan.
Asked if he thinks he can do the job at 85, he fumed combatively, as did the younger Biden. “I can do it better than anyone you know,” he said.
It has become a recurring cycle. In February, special prosecutor Robert Hur described the president as “a well-intentioned old man with a bad memory.” Biden erupted in fury. “I know what the hell I'm doing,” he said.
A few weeks later, he gave a powerful State of the Union speech, and the “age question” seemed to subside… for a while.
It's as if he's trapped in a version of the Sisyphus myth in an election year, doomed to push the boulder of his years up the hill only to see it fall again.
There's a simple reason the problem won't go away: Biden is the oldest man to serve as president of the United States and the oldest to seek a second term. That guarantees that voters will have scruples.
A New York Times/Siena College poll conducted in April reported that 69% of voters think Biden is too old to be an effective president.
His Republican opponent, Donald Trump, fared considerably better; Only 41% said they thought Trump is too old.
Trump is three and a half years younger than Biden. The former president turns 78 this Friday.
And Trump's flaws are at least as numerous as Biden's.
He also confuses names and places. In recent months, he has frequently said “Obama” when referring to “Biden.” He repeatedly confused Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi.
It is difficult for him to pronounce polysyllabic words (“anonymous”, “infrastructure”, “origins”). His speeches go from one seemingly unconnected thought to another.
And he often says things that are either wildly false, like his claim that he created the strongest economy in American history (not even close), or absurd, like his warning that if Biden wins, “they're going to change the name of Pennsylvania.”
So why is Trump benefiting from what appears, at least to Democrats, to be a double standard?
For one thing, he stands firmer than Biden, and some voters seem to use that as a measure of his overall fitness.
But physical agility is not essential for presidential success. Franklin D. Roosevelt did the job from a wheelchair.
Biden's stiff walk is visible every time he crosses a stage or parade ground. Trump seems more vigorous, at least at first glance. But we don't really know which of them he is in better physical condition. Biden's medical report, declaring him “fit for duty,” is six pages long and includes his weight, blood pressure, medications and details of his condition. Trump's report is one page long and does not include any of that information.
A second explanation: low expectations. Voters have become accustomed to Trump's antics.
When a reporter recently asked Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to explain some of the former president's strange statements, Graham offered a multi-purpose explanation: “Give me a break. I mean, it's Trump.”
A related theory: brand consistency.
“Biden ran for president on a platform of stability and competence, and that image is undermined by suggestions of mental decline,” the Atlantic’s McKay Coppins recently wrote. “Accusing Trump of going crazy doesn't work because, well, he's seemed crazy for a long time.”
The sobering fact is that we have no reliable way to measure the mental acuity of any of the candidates.
Biden and his advisers argue that he should be judged by the results of his first term: the bills he passed, the alliances he maintained and the strong economy he produced (even though it had chronically high prices).
It's a reasonable measure, except that it measures the last three years, not the next five.
A better solution might be the one Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, proposed when she ran against Trump in the GOP primary: subjecting both candidates to a cognitive test.
“They should both get tested, along with all other politicians over 75,” Haley said. “Voters deserve to know whether those who make important decisions… can pass a very basic mental test.” She (she also said she thought Trump was “diminished” and “not the same person he was in 2016”).
But none of the candidates have embraced that idea. And at least one of them would certainly claim that the test was rigged if he failed.
Trump took a cognitive test six years ago and boasted that he passed it, although he did not release the actual results. The test, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, is widely used to screen for symptoms of dementia in patients.
The media has a role to play in taking a closer look at both candidates, starting, perhaps, with a Wall Street Journal article about Trump.
The problem is not that we have an aging president who is less clear and coherent than before. It's just that we have two older candidates, and they're both less sharp and coherent than they used to be.
One is unsteady on one's feet. The other is a serial liar who believes the Constitution allows him to overturn elections and imprison his opponents.
No wonder voters are dissatisfied.
