Joe Biden could become the oldest president to seek a 2nd term. Does his age really matter?

In 1980, journalist Jeff Greenfield predicted on television that Joe Biden would challenge Ronald Reagan if the Republican president-elect sought a second term.

Walter Cronkite disagreed and when the 1984 election rolled around, Biden was not on the ticket. Voters chose to re-elect Reagan, then 73, and has been the oldest American president to serve.

Two failed presidential bids would come and go for Biden. But it wasn’t until 2020 that he became president-elect, not long before his 78th birthday.

“We’ve never had a president serve in office who was over 80,” Greenfield said.

Until Biden, that is — who turned 80 years ago and is now the nation’s oldest president. He hopes to reveal whether he will seek a second term.

A second Biden victory would put the US president on a relatively short list of democratic leaders whose rise – or return to power – has been too late.

But experts say Biden shouldn’t be eliminated just because he’s older than voters expect.

“Biden’s claims are irrelevant [because of his age] it just doesn’t stand up,” said Rodney Loeppky, an associate professor in the department of politics at Toronto’s York University.

“He’s fighting a lot of cultural and political bias, and then he’s also vulnerable to political attacks. But if you ask me objectively, you know, is he too old for office? There’s no reason to say.”

Not just Biden

Biden is the oldest leader of the G7 countries, although there are democracies now led by political veterans of similar age and experience.

Last fall, Brazilian voters returned Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to power at the age of 77, twenty years after he first held the same job.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his sixth term as leader, will turn 74 this fall, while India’s Narendra Modi – in the middle of his second term as prime minister – will turn 73.

Other countries need a longer time to go through the pages of history to find similar examples.

In Canada, the most recent prime minister to be the same age as Biden was Louis St-Laurent, who was 75 when the Liberals lost the 1957 general election. But that was at the end of his term in power, not the beginning.

In the UK, only a handful of prime ministers have led governments as octogenarians.

The most recent was Winston Churchill, when he returned to power in post-war Britain in 1951. He was 80 when he left office in 1955. The Conservative prime minister was the oldest to lead his country in decades at the time and the oldest since. .

In contrast, Rishi Sunak, the current prime minister at 42, is the youngest British leader in 200 years.

The work can be difficult for world leaders of any age, and it can affect their health even after they leave the office.

Anupam Jena, a physician and professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, examined this issue in a 2015 observational study that compared the lifespan of hundreds of world leaders against those who opposed them, but did not achieve it. project.

The study found “the head of government has significantly accelerated mortality compared to the runner-up candidate.”

And while Biden may be in his 80s, Jena says the US president appears to be in good health — and his health may differ from the average person of the same age.

“These are very active people,” Jena said, noting that Biden, as president, has access to a level of health care that few others do.

In general, Alison Chasteen, professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, said “there are many variations with aging” and people should not be disqualified from doing certain jobs just because they are old.

“We know that chronological age, alone, is not a good indicator of a person’s ability in later life,” said Chasteen, an expert on age and age stereotypes.

A recurring question

The topic of Biden’s age has been raised by political opponents throughout his presidency — including after his union speech.

Political observers predict Biden’s age will continue to be appointed, if he moves forward with his plans to run again.

Lindsay Chervinsky, a presidential historian, told The Associated Press that Biden’s age was the “X factor” that set him apart from his predecessors.

“If he was 10 years younger, none of the conversations would have happened,” he said.

But Greenfield said the U.S. may increasingly see older men in the White House, noting the most recent election had two men in their 70s — Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump — competing for the job.

“What Biden likes is that the country is getting older,” Greenfield said, referring to the aging population.

The University of Toronto’s Chasteen says there are longstanding and negative stereotypes in many societies about what parents can do.

Seeing Biden in action in the role he plays can help dispel those stereotypes, but Chasteen said the way the media covers the presidency can cause it — such as when the president tripped on an airplane staircase caught on camera a few years ago.

“It’s gotten a lot of media attention,” Chasteen said, noting that such “mistakes or errors” are so clearly associated with aging that it’s harder to say that people are “doing their job well and aging too well, overall.”

Desired offensive line

York University’s Loepkky says America invests heavily in the individuals who lead its country – and this leads to scrutiny of the candidate’s personality and suitability for the job.

“There’s this personal element to the president and his age,” said Loeppky, now the Canada Fulbright Research Chair in Race and Health Policy at the University of Memphis.

But he said it is also a topic that some Republican opponents are using on a tactical basis in the middle of a vitriolic political climate.

“Age is one way to … dehumanize Biden and make him look smaller in the face of that office,” Loeppky said.

Paul Quirk, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, said Biden brings “a wealth of experience” to his day-to-day work in the White House, from his time as a senator and vice president.

With that in mind, he predicted that if Biden seeks a second term, “his age will be mentioned negatively from time to time, but I don’t think it will be a significant factor in the election.”

Quirk, a specialist in US politics, also noted that the president’s work style can vary and can be adjusted according to the leader’s preferences – as seen in the various styles displayed by previous Oval Office occupants.

“If the president slows down and can’t work for a long time, it doesn’t matter,” Quirk said, noting White House leaders have several staffers to delegate tasks to if necessary.