Elderly

Subterms

    More stories

    • 88 Shares159 Views

      in Elections

      ¿A qué edad deberían retirarse los políticos?

      by

      Dos momentos preocupantes que involucraron a los senadores Dianne Feinstein y Mitch McConnell provocaron preguntas sobre el envejecimiento de los líderes electos.Tras una serie de momentos preocupantes en Estados Unidos la semana pasada, a los ciudadanos, a los estrategas e incluso a los políticos les resulta imposible eludir una pregunta incómoda: ¿hasta qué edad se puede ocupar un cargo público?Durante años, como les sucede a tantos hijos de padres que envejecen en Estados Unidos, los políticos y sus asesores en Washington trataron de eludir esa difícil conversación y no dijeron nada sobre las preocupaciones que suscitan sus líderes octogenarios. Pudieron mantenerse en silencio gracias a las tradiciones de una ciudad que dota a las figuras públicas con un batallón de asistentes que gestionan casi toda su vida profesional y personal.“No sé cuál sea el número mágico, pero me parece que, como regla general, pues, cuando tienes más de ochenta es hora de pensar en relajarte un poco”, dijo Trent Lott, de 81 años, quien fue líder de la mayoría republicana del Senado y se retiró a los 67 años para fundar su propia empresa de cabildeo. “El problema es que te eligen para un mandato de seis años, estás en excelente forma, pero cuatro años después puede que no estés tan bien”.La semana pasada, dos episodios que han sido objeto de un minucioso escrutinio han hecho que el tema de envejecer con dignidad en un cargo público salga de los pasillos del Congreso estadounidense y se convierta en tema de conversación nacional.El miércoles, circuló en internet y en las noticias un video en el que se puede ver al senador Mitch McConnell, de 81 años, paralizarse durante 20 segundos frente a las cámaras. Menos de 24 horas después, apareció otro video de la senadora Dianne Feinstein, de 90 años, en el que se le veía confundida cuando se le pidió votar en una comisión.Desde hace meses, se ha venido desarrollando un debate político sobre la cuestión de la edad, a medida que Estados Unidos se enfrenta a la posibilidad de una contienda presidencial entre los candidatos de mayor edad de la historia del país. El presidente Joe Biden, de 80 años, quien ya es el presidente más veterano en la Casa Blanca, aspira a un segundo mandato, y Donald Trump, de 77 años, lidera la contienda de las elecciones primarias republicanas.“Cuando digo que tenemos que pasar la batuta a las generaciones más jóvenes, no estoy hablando de personas muy jóvenes”, dijo Dean Phillips, representante por Minnesota, de 54 años, el único demócrata en el Congreso que declaró que Feinstein debería dimitir y que Biden no debería presentarse a la reelección. “Solo me refiero a una generación razonablemente menos mayor”, explicó.El hiato de McConnell creó una nueva oportunidad para que los contendientes más jóvenes planteen la cuestión de un modo más enérgico. El viernes, el gobernador de Florida, Ron DeSantis, de 44 años, uno de los principales aspirantes republicanos a la presidencia, criticó la gerontocracia política del país.“Los funcionarios solían servir en su mejor momento y luego le pasaban la batuta a la siguiente generación, y me parece que esta generación no ha estado tan dispuesta a hacer esto”, dijo DeSantis a la comentarista conservadora Megyn Kelly y señaló que Biden se convirtió en senador en 1973, cinco años antes de que DeSantis naciera.Cabe destacar que Trump, quien tendría 82 años al final de un segundo mandato, defendió a Biden, al afirmar que el presidente no debe ser menospreciado por su edad. “No es un anciano”, publicó Trump este mes en Truth Social, su plataforma de redes sociales. “De hecho, ¡la vida empieza a los 80!”.Los médicos de Biden han dicho que goza de buena salud. Se sabe menos de la salud de Trump tras su salida de la Casa Blanca.Desde que en junio Biden cayó al suelo tras tropezar con un saco de arena, los asistentes de la Casa Blanca se han vuelto cada vez más sensibles a cualquier insinuación de que está disminuido físicamente.Ahora suele utilizar una escalera más corta para subir al Air Force One, observación que apareció en un reportaje de Politico y que llevó a sus asistentes a difundir 13 fotos de presidentes anteriores que también utilizaron escaleras que parecen tener una longitud similar. Desde principios de mayo no ha ido a comprar el helado que tanto le gusta ni se le ha visto en ningún otro comercio para hacer una visita improvisada a la ciudadanía. La Casa Blanca dice que la apretada agenda de viajes de Biden no ha permitido tales paradas este verano.Algunos de los principales asesores de Biden argumentan que su campaña debería abordar directamente el tema de la edad como una ventaja política —y una realidad innegable— en lugar de evitar el tema.“La edad es un superpoder”, declaró Jeffrey Katzenberg, magnate de Hollywood de 72 años, a quien Biden nombró copresidente de su campaña. “No puedes huir de ella porque tienes 80 años, ¿verdad? No se puede negar. He sido del bando que cree firmemente que es una de sus mayores ventajas”.Las encuestas indican que los electores opinan distinto, pues a muchos demócratas les preocupa la edad de Biden en medio de los ataques republicanos. En un sondeo realizado por YouGov el año pasado, la mayoría de los estadounidenses están a favor de que haya límites de edad para los servidores públicos que llegan a un cargo mediante elecciones, pero no hubo ningún consenso sobre el límite exacto. Poner un límite de 60 años impediría que el 71 por ciento del Senado pudiera ejercer su cargo, mientras que un tope de 70 años haría que el 30 por ciento de los legisladores fueran inelegibles, halló un análisis del grupo.En Dakota del Norte, un activista conservador empezó esta semana a circular peticiones para forzar un referéndum estatal el año que viene que prohibiría a cualquier persona que para el final de su mandato tenga 81 años postularse o ser electa para un escaño en el Congreso.Cuando Biden es interrogado por el tema de la edad, minimiza las preocupaciones con bromas y hace énfasis en su experiencia política. McConnell adoptó una estrategia similar cuando dijo a los periodistas que bromeó con el presidente sobre su lapsus de salud diciéndole que “se tropezó con un saco de arena”, una referencia a cómo Biden se rio de su propia caída.Está claro que ni siquiera una buena ocurrencia puede acabar con la realidad del envejecimiento. Tras la parálisis de McConnell, diversos artículos plantearon interrogantes sobre su estado de salud, ya que en marzo se ausentó del trabajo durante varias semanas por una conmoción cerebral.Por su parte, Feinstein, quien ha tenido problemas de memoria y se ausentó varios meses del Senado mientras se recuperaba de un herpes zóster, en ocasiones ha parecido incapaz de responder a preguntas sobre su estado de salud.Exasistentes afirman que parte del problema es la relación de interdependencia que se desarrolla entre los políticos y su equipo. Si un senador o senadora se retira, todo su personal —integrado por varias decenas de personas— puede quedarse sin trabajo de un día para otro.¿Y quién quiere decirle al jefe que, tal vez, ya pasó su mejor momento? Puede ser más fácil simplemente disimular los desafíos haciendo que los asistentes elaboren políticas, limiten el acceso a los reporteros y traten de evitar momentos sin un guion definido.“El Senado es un lugar tan cálido y reconfortante que puedes vivir dentro de esa burbuja”, dijo Jim Manley, de 62 años, quien trabajó para los senadores Ted Kennedy y Harry Reid. “Tienes personal a tu entera disposición, gente que te abre las puertas todo el tiempo”.Mientras que otros sectores tienen edades de jubilación obligatoria, incluidas algunas empresas que cotizan en bolsa y compañías aéreas, los congresistas han sido renuentes a adoptar políticas que equivaldrían a votar para verse obligados a dejar su cargo. Ni siquiera los votantes parecen ponerse de acuerdo sobre cuándo es suficiente y se muestran divididos cuando se les pregunta por un límite de edad concreto.La decisión de abandonar un puesto tan importante y poderoso es difícil, pero la alternativa —envejecer ante la opinión pública— podría ser peor, advirtieron algunos senadores retirados.“Es desgarrador, vergonzoso, pero cada quien decide cómo enfrentar la realidad”, dijo Chuck Hagel, de 77 años, quien fue senador por Nebraska y dejó el cargo en 2009. “La realidad es que no vamos contrarreloj, sino que todos envejecemos. A mis 77 años, comparados con los 62 que tenía cuando dejé el Senado, ahora tengo dolores que ni siquiera sabía que tendría”.Lisa Lerer es corresponsal de política nacional que cubre campañas electorales, votaciones y poder político. Más sobre Lisa LererReid J. Epstein cubre campañas y elecciones desde Washington. Antes de unirse al Times en 2019, trabajó en The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday y The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Más sobre Reid J. Epstein More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Elections

      Videos of Dianne Feinstein and Mitch McConnell Resurface Questions About Age

      by

      Two troubling moments involving Senators Dianne Feinstein and Mitch McConnell thrust questions about aging in office out of Congress and into the national conversation.After a series of troubling moments this week, an uncomfortable question has become unavoidable, leaving voters, strategists and even politicians themselves wondering: Just how old is too old to serve in public office?For years, like so many children of aging parents across America, politicians and their advisers in Washington tried to skirt that difficult conversation, wrapping concerns about their octogenarian leaders in a cone of silence. The omertà was enabled by the traditions of a city that arms public figures with a battalion of aides, who manage nearly all of their professional and personal lives.“I don’t know what the magic number is, but I do think that as a general rule, my goodness, when you get into the 80s, it’s time to think about a little relaxation,” said Trent Lott, 81, a former Senate majority leader who retired at the spry age of 67 to start his own lobbying firm. “The problem is, you get elected to a six-year term, you’re in pretty good shape, but four years later you may not be so good.”Two closely scrutinized episodes this week thrust questions about aging with dignity in public office out of the halls of Congress and into the national conversation.On Wednesday, video of Senator Mitch McConnell, 81, freezing for 20 seconds in front of television cameras reverberated across the internet and newscasts. Less than 24 hours later, another clip surfaced of Senator Dianne Feinstein, 90, appearing confused when asked to vote in committee.A political discussion on the issue of age has been building for months, as the country faces the possibility of a presidential contest between the oldest candidates in American history. President Biden, 80, already the oldest president to sit in the White House, is vying for a second term, and Donald J. Trump, 77, is leading the Republican primary race.“When I say we need to pass the baton to younger generations, I’m not talking about youthful generations,” said Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota, 54, the only Democrat in Congress to say that Ms. Feinstein should step down and that Mr. Biden should not seek re-election. “I’m talking about simply a reasonably less aged generation.”Mr. McConnell’s stumble created a fresh opening for younger contenders to raise the issue more aggressively. On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, 44, a top Republican presidential candidate, took a jab at the country’s political gerontocracy.“You used to serve in your prime and then pass the baton to the next generation, and I think this generation has not really been as willing to do that,” Mr. DeSantis told the right-leaning commentator Megyn Kelly, noting that Mr. Biden became a senator in 1973 — five years before Mr. DeSantis was born.Notably, Mr. Trump, who would be 82 at the end of a second term, has defended Mr. Biden, saying that the president should not be discounted because of his age. “He is not an old man,” Mr. Trump posted this month on Truth Social, his social media platform. “In actuality, life begins at 80!”Doctors for Mr. Biden have said he is in good health. Less is known about Mr. Trump’s health since he left the White House.After Mr. Biden was captured tripping over a sandbag in June, White House aides have grown increasingly sensitive to any insinuation that he is physically diminished.He now regularly uses a shorter set of stairs to board Air Force One, an observation noted in a report by Politico that prompted aides to circulate 13 photos of his predecessors using stairs that appear to be of a similar length. He has not gone out to get his beloved ice cream, or dropped into any other business for an impromptu visit with voters, since early May. The White House says Mr. Biden’s crowded travel schedule has not allowed for such stops this summer.Some top advisers to Mr. Biden argue that his campaign should directly embrace his age as a political asset — and undeniable reality — rather than avoid the issue.“Age is in fact a superpower,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, 72, the Hollywood mogul whom Mr. Biden named as a co-chairman of his campaign. “You can’t run from it because you’re 80 years old, right? There’s no denying it. I’ve been of the camp that believes strongly this is one of his greatest assets.”Surveys indicate that voters disagree, with many Democratic voters worrying about Mr. Biden’s age amid Republican attacks. In polling conducted by YouGov last year, a majority of Americans supported age limits for elected officials but were split over the precise cutoff. A cap at age 60 would bar 71 percent of the Senate from holding office, while a limit of 70 would render 30 percent ineligible, an analysis by the firm found.In North Dakota, a conservative activist this week began circulating petitions to force a statewide referendum next year that would prohibit anyone who would turn 81 by the end of their term from being elected or appointed to congressional seats.When asked, Mr. Biden dismisses worries about his age with jokes and boasts about his political experience. Mr. McConnell took a similar approach, telling reporters that he joked with the president about his health scare by saying that he had been “sandbagged” — a reference to how Mr. Biden laughed off his fall.Of course, even a good quip can’t stop the realities of growing older. After Mr. McConnell’s freeze, reports raised additional questions about his health since he missed weeks of work for a concussion in March.For her part, Ms. Feinstein, who has struggled with memory problems and a long absence from the Senate while she recovered from shingles, has appeared at times unable to respond to questions about her condition.Part of the problem, former aides say, is the interdependent relationship between politicians and their staffs. If a senator retires, his or her entire office — several dozen employees — can be suddenly out of work.And who wants to tell the boss that they are, perhaps, past their prime? It can be smoother to simply paper over the challenges by having aides craft policy, limit access to reporters and try to avoid unscripted moments.“The Senate is such a warm, comforting place that you can live inside that bubble,” said Jim Manley, 62, who worked for Senators Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid. “You have staff at beck and call, people opening doors for you all the time.”While other industries have mandatory retirement ages, including some publicly traded companies and airlines, members of Congress have shown little desire for policies that would amount to voting themselves out of a job. Even voters can’t seem to agree on when enough is enough, remaining divided when asked to back a specific age limit.The decision to leave a defining and powerful post is difficult, but the alternative — aging in the public eye — might be worse, former senators warned.“It’s heartbreaking, embarrassing, but it’s up to the individual to come to grips with reality,” said Chuck Hagel, 77, a former Nebraska senator who left office in 2009. “The reality is we are not going backwards; we’re all getting old. At 77, versus 62 when I left the Senate, I have pains now that I didn’t even know I should have.” More

    • 75 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      Are Democrats Actually Winning Older Voters?

      by

      Some intriguing signs that the party may be doing better among seniors than is commonly thought.Some polling suggests President Biden gained among seniors.Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesIn the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, the polls showed something strange: Joe Biden was faring far better than expected among voters over age 65. Some polls showed him ahead by 10 points or more.It was a little hard to explain — and believe. Yes, the pandemic hit seniors hardest. Yes, Mr. Biden was old himself. Yes, the baby boomer generation was aging into the 65-and-older group, replacing somewhat more conservative voters. But could Mr. Biden really be winning older voters? When the final overall results came in far better for Donald J. Trump than the polls suggested, it appeared to offer an obvious answer: no.Three years later, I’m wondering whether there was more to Mr. Biden’s strength among older voters than it seemed. Maybe he didn’t win older voters by 10 points, but maybe he actually did come close to winning older voters or outright did so.My renewed interest boils down to this: The polling, which was accurate last year for the midterms, still shows Mr. Biden and Democrats doing quite well among older voters.Our own Times/Siena polls, for instance, were highly accurate. They did not overestimate Democrats. And yet the Times/Siena polls found the generic congressional ballot tied among seniors, at 45 percent support for each party. In a question asking how they voted in the 2020 presidential election, the polls still found Mr. Biden leading Mr. Trump, 53 percent to 47 percent, among older voters.Could Mr. Biden really have done so well? Unfortunately, it’s very hard to be sure. The various post-election studies — like the exit polls or the data from the Democratic firm Catalist — still show Republicans winning the group in 2022. Worse, the hard election results don’t offer much additional evidence to help clarify the matter. Voters aren’t nearly as segregated by age as they are by race or education, making it difficult to find additional evidence in voting results to confirm whether the trends evident in the polls are ultimately borne out on Election Day.But there is one additional data point worth considering: our high-incentive mail study of Wisconsin. As you may recall, we promised Wisconsin voters up to $25 dollars in an effort to reach the kinds of people who don’t usually take political surveys. In the end, it achieved a response rate surpassing 20 percent (by contrast, only about 1 percent of our attempted phone calls yield a completed interview in a typical poll). The response rate among older Wisconsinites appeared to be much, much higher.Democrats fared better among older voters in the Wisconsin mail survey than in any other major election study. The mail survey found the Democrat Mandela Barnes beating the Republican incumbent senator, Ron Johnson, by 52-40 among older registered voters. In comparison, the concurrent Times/Siena poll — using our traditional live-interview methods — found Mr. Barnes up by 46-43 among that group, while the other election studies were even farther to the right. The exit polls found Mr. Johnson ahead by seven points with that group while AP/VoteCast found Mr. Johnson up by four points.The findings were just as extreme when voters were asked to recall how they voted in the 2020 presidential election. In the high-incentive mail survey, voters over 67 in 2022 (meaning over 65 in 2020) said they backed Mr. Biden by 55-38 over Mr. Trump. In contrast, the Times/Siena poll found Mr. Biden ahead, 48-43, among the same group. The exit polls and VoteCast data both found Mr. Trump winning seniors by a comfortable margin in 2020.To reiterate: There’s not much additional evidence to help corroborate these very different versions of what happened among older voters. But the mail survey in Wisconsin is intriguing evidence. It’s renewed my curiosity in the possibility that maybe, just maybe, Democrats are doing better among older voters than is commonly thought.If they are, it would help make sense of the party’s new strength in special elections — which tend to have very old electorates — and perhaps in last November’s midterm elections as well. More

    • 113 Shares179 Views

      in Elections

      The Complicated Reality of Joe Biden, America’s Oldest President

      by

      There was the time last winter when President Biden was awakened at 3 a.m. while on a trip to Asia and told that a missile had struck Poland, touching off a panic that Russia might have expanded the war in Ukraine to a NATO ally. Within hours in the middle of the night, Mr. Biden consulted his top advisers, called the president of Poland and the NATO secretary general, and gathered fellow world leaders to deal with the crisis.And then there was the time a few weeks ago when the president was hosting children for Take Your Child to Work Day and became mixed up as he tried to list his grandchildren. “So, let me see. I got one in New York, two in Philadelphia — or is it three? No, three, because I got one granddaughter who is — I don’t know. You’re confusing me.” He also drew a blank when asked the last country he had visited and the name of a favorite movie.The two Joe Bidens coexist in the same octogenarian president: Sharp and wise at critical moments, the product of decades of seasoning, able to rise to the occasion even in the dead of night to confront a dangerous world. Yet a little slower, a little softer, a little harder of hearing, a little more tentative in his walk, a little more prone to occasional lapses of memory in ways that feel familiar to anyone who has reached their ninth decade or has a parent who has.The complicated reality of America’s oldest president was encapsulated on Thursday as Congress approved a bipartisan deal he brokered to avoid a national default. Even Speaker Kevin McCarthy testified that Mr. Biden had been “very professional, very smart, very tough” during their talks. Yet just before the voting got underway, Mr. Biden tripped over a sandbag at the Air Force Academy commencement, plunging to the ground. The video went viral, his supporters cringed and his critics pounced.Anyone can trip at any age, but for an 80-year-old president, it inevitably raises unwelcome questions. If it were anyone else, the signs of age might not be notable. But Mr. Biden is the chief executive of the world’s most powerful nation and has just embarked on a campaign asking voters to keep him in the White House until age 86, drawing more attention to an issue that polls show troubles most Americans and is the source of enormous anxiety among party leaders.“You say I’m ancient?” Mr. Biden said at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April. “I say I’m wise.”Yuri Gripas for The New York TimesThe portrait that emerges from months of interviews with dozens of current and former officials and others who have spent time with him lies somewhere between the partisan cartoon of an addled and easily manipulated fogy promoted by Republicans and the image spread by his staff of a president in aviator shades commanding the world stage and governing with vigor.It is one of a man who has slowed with age in ways that are more pronounced than just the graying hair common to most recent presidents during their time in office. Mr. Biden sometimes mangles his words and looks older than he used to because of his stiff gait and thinning voice.Yet people who deal with him regularly, including some of his adversaries, say he remains sharp and commanding in private meetings. Diplomats share stories of trips to places like Ukraine, Japan, Egypt, Cambodia and Indonesia in which he often outlasts younger colleagues. Democratic lawmakers point to a long list of accomplishments as proof that he still gets the job done.His verbal miscues are nothing new, friends note; he has struggled throughout his life with a stutter and was a “gaffe machine,” to use his own term, long before he entered Social Security years. Advisers said his judgment is as good as ever. So many of them use the phrase “sharp as a tack” to describe him that it has become something of a mantra.Mr. Biden says age is a legitimate issue but maintains that his longevity is an asset, not a liability. “You say I’m ancient?” he said at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in April. “I say I’m wise.”Still, few people fail to notice the changes in one of the nation’s most public people. As vice president a dozen years ago, Mr. Biden engaged in energetic squirt gun battles each summer with the children of aides and reporters. More than a decade later, he shuffled stiffly across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., to mark the anniversary of Bloody Sunday.Polls indicate the president’s age is a top concern of Americans, including Democrats. During a recent New York Times focus group, several voters who supported Mr. Biden in 2020 expressed worry, with one saying: “I’ve just seen the blank stare at times, when he’s either giving a speech or addressing a crowd. It seems like he loses his train of thought.”Unease about Mr. Biden’s age suffuses Democratic circles. One prominent Wall Street Democrat, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid offending the White House, noted that among party donors it was all anyone was talking about. At a small dinner earlier this year of former Democratic senators and governors, all of them in Mr. Biden’s generation, everyone at the table agreed he was too old to run again. Local leaders often call the White House to inquire about his health.In private, officials acknowledge that they make what they consider reasonable accommodations not to physically tax an aging president. His staff schedules most of his public appearances between noon and 4 p.m. and leave him alone on weekends as much as possible.A study of Mr. Biden’s schedule based on data compiled by Axios and expanded by The New York Times found that Mr. Biden has a similar morning cadence as the president he served, Barack Obama. Neither had many public events before 10 a.m., just 4 percent in Mr. Obama’s last year in office and 5 percent in Mr. Biden’s first two and a half years. But the real difference came in the evening. Mr. Obama was twice as likely to do public events after 6 p.m. compared with Mr. Biden, 17 percent to 9 percent.Aides limit exposing the president to news media interviews when he could make a politically damaging mistake. He has given just a fourth of the interviews Donald J. Trump did in the same time period and a fifth of Mr. Obama’s interviews — and none at all to reporters from a major newspaper. Mr. Biden has not given an interview to the news department of The Times, unlike every president since at least Franklin D. Roosevelt other than Dwight D. Eisenhower. And in the past 100 years, only Ronald Reagan and Richard M. Nixon have subjected themselves to as few news conferences.White House officials have not made Mr. Biden’s doctor available for questioning, as previous presidents have. In February, Kevin C. O’Connor, the White House physician, issued a five-page letter stating that Mr. Biden is “fit for duty, and fully executes all of his responsibilities without any exemptions or accommodations.”But he also wrote that the president’s tendency to walk stiffly is “in fact a result of degenerative (‘wear and tear’)” changes in his spine, and partly the result of “tighter hamstrings and calves.” The letter said there were “no findings which would be consistent with” a neurological disorder like stroke, multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease. He takes medicine for atrial fibrillation, cholesterol, heartburn, asthma and allergies.Like many his age, Mr. Biden repeats phrases and retells the same hoary, often fact-challenged stories again and again. He can be quirky; when children visit, he may randomly pull a book of William Butler Yeats off his desk and start reading Irish poetry to them.At the same time, he is trim and fit, exercises five days a week and does not drink. He has at times exhibited striking stamina, such as when he flew to Poland then boarded a nine-hour train ride to make a secret visit to Kyiv, spent hours on the ground, then endured another nine-hour train ride and a flight to Warsaw. A study of his schedule by Mr. Biden’s aides shows that he has traveled slightly more in the first few months of his third year in office than Mr. Obama did in his.Mr. Biden’s trip to Kyiv, in which he met with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, required a nonstop schedule.Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times“Does he ramble? Yes, he does,” said Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, a Democrat who categorically rejects the idea that Mr. Biden is too old to be president. “Has he always rambled? Yes, he has. Public and private. He’s the same guy. He’s literally — I’m not saying this lightly. I don’t know anyone else in my life who is so much the same guy privately as he is publicly.”Some friends bristle at the attention to his age. “I think the reason this is an issue is primarily because of the media talking about it constantly,” said former Senator Ted Kaufman, a longtime adviser to Mr. Biden from Delaware. “I do not see anything in my dealings with him that age is a problem. He’s done more than any president has been able to do in my lifetime.”Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, noted that Republican hard-liners were grousing that Mr. Biden had gotten the better of Mr. McCarthy in the fiscal deal. “It’s telling that the same extreme MAGA members of Congress who’ve been talking about his age complained this week that he outsmarted them on the budget agreement,” Mr. Bates said.The question of Mr. Biden’s age does not come in isolation, of course. Mr. Trump, his likeliest Republican challenger, is just four years younger and was the oldest president in history until Mr. Biden succeeded him. If Mr. Trump were to win next year, he would be 82 at the end of his term, older than Mr. Biden will be at the end of this one.While in office, Mr. Trump generated concerns about his mental acuity and physical condition. He did not exercise, his diet leaned heavily on cheeseburgers and steak and he officially tipped the scales at 244 pounds, a weight formally deemed obese for his height.After complaining that he was overscheduled with morning meetings, Mr. Trump stopped showing up at the Oval Office until 11 or 11:30 a.m. each day, staying in the residence to watch television, make phone calls or send out incendiary tweets. During an appearance at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he had trouble lifting a glass of water and seemed to have trouble making his way down a modest ramp.Most striking was Mr. Trump’s cognitive performance. He was erratic and tended to ramble; experts found that he had grown less articulate and that his vocabulary had shrunk since his younger days. Aides said privately that Mr. Trump had trouble processing information and distinguishing fact from fiction. His second chief of staff, John F. Kelly, bought a book analyzing Mr. Trump’s psychological health to understand him better, and several cabinet secretaries concerned that he might be mentally unfit discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him.Former President Donald J. Trump’s cognitive issues are not as often associated with age in the public mind as are Mr. Biden’s, perhaps because Mr. Trump’s bombastic volume conveys energy.Doug Mills/The New York TimesBut perhaps because his bombastic volume conveys energy, Mr. Trump’s issues are not associated with age in the public mind as much as Mr. Biden’s are. In a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, 73 percent said Mr. Biden is too old to be in office, compared with 51 percent who said the same of Mr. Trump.Mr. Biden manages his day with more discipline than his predecessor. Jill Biden, who teaches at Northern Virginia Community College, gets up around 6 a.m. while the president wakes an hour later, according to accounts he has given. Mr. Biden has told aides that their cat sometimes wakes him in the middle of the night by walking across his face.By 7:20 a.m., the first lady leaves for work. Mr. Biden works out at 8 a.m.; he has a Peloton bicycle in the residence and is known to watch shows like “Morning Joe” on MSNBC. He arrives at the Oval Office by 9 a.m. for a morning usually filled with meetings. For lunch, there is a rotation of salad, soup and sandwiches.Mr. Biden exercises five days a week and does not drink.Al Drago for The New York TimesFollowing afternoon events, the president returns to the residence around 6:45 p.m. For dinner, pasta is a favorite. In fact, one former official said, whenever he travels, aides make sure there is always red sauce on hand for pasta to finish his day — even as he balks at the salmon that his wife urges on him.From 8 p.m., the Bidens often read their briefing books together in the living room of the residence. The first lady typically turns in at 10:30 p.m. and the president follows a half-hour later.Aides say it is clear he actually reads the briefing books because of the questions that follow. “There’s no one who is better at asking questions to get to the bottom of an issue, calling your bluff, asking the tough questions,” said Stefanie Feldman, the White House staff secretary. “He asks just as tough questions today as he did 10 years ago.”Some who accompany him overseas express astonishment at his ability to keep up. When Italy’s new leader pushed for a meeting while the president was in Poland, he readily agreed to add it to the already packed schedule. During a trip to Ireland, people with him said he was energized and wanted to talk at length on Air Force One rather than rest.Still, after fatiguing days on the road, he skipped dinner with world leaders in Indonesia last year and again in Japan in May. Others who have known him for years said privately that they have noticed small changes. When he sits down, one former official said, he usually places a hand on his desk to hold his weight and rarely springs back up with his old energy.Mr. Biden’s staff schedules most of his public appearances between noon and 4 p.m. and leaves him alone on weekends as much as possible.Doug Mills/The New York TimesHe speaks so softly that he can be hard to hear. For speeches, aides give him a hand-held microphone to hold close to his mouth to amplify his voice even when standing at a lectern with mounted microphones.Mr. Biden and Jill Biden, his wife, often follow a similar schedule.Doug Mills/The New York TimesYet aides said that while he can momentarily forget a name or fact, he retains a formidable memory for detail. Preparing to travel to Shanksville, Pa., on the 20th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he became frustrated that officials had given him the wrong plan for his movements. He had been to the memorial before and knew the plan made no sense because he remembered the layout of the grounds.White House officials voice aggravation that concern about age is inflated by pictures on the internet that are sometimes faked or highly distorted. Every week, strategists conduct a word cloud analysis with a panel of voters asking what they had heard about the president, good or bad. After Mr. Biden’s foot got caught in the toe cage of his bicycle and he tumbled over last year, the two words in the bad-word cloud for weeks were “bike fell” — all the more frustrating for aides who noted that Mr. Trump hardly seemed capable of even riding a bike.Mr. Biden lately has turned to self-deprecating humor to defuse the issue, taking a cue from Mr. Reagan, who won re-election in 1984 at age 73 in part with a well-timed debate quip about not exploiting “my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”Some who accompany Mr. Biden overseas express astonishment at his ability to keep up. Still, after fatiguing days on the road, he skipped dinner with world leaders in Indonesia last year and again in Japan in May.Doug Mills/The New York TimesAt the correspondents’ dinner, Mr. Biden assured the audience that he supported the First Amendment, and “not just because my good friend Jimmy Madison wrote it.” During the Take Your Child to Work Day event, he looked back on “when I was younger, 120 years ago.”And at the Air Force Academy a few days ago, Mr. Biden joked that “when I was graduating from high school 300 years ago, I applied to the Naval Academy.” After tripping on the sandbag, he sought to laugh that off too. “I got sandbagged,” he said. More

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Elections

      ¿Cuánto les importa a los votantes la edad de Joe Biden?

      by

      Más allá de una crisis de salud o una equivocación grave, hay buenas razones para pensar que la edad de Biden puede importar menos de lo que sugieren algunas encuestas.Muchos estadounidenses dicen que no quieren que el presidente Joe Biden vuelva a postularse a la reelección y su edad es una razón de peso. En una encuesta de NBC News publicada el pasado fin de semana, el 70 por ciento de los adultos opinó que Biden, de 80 años, no debería volver a postularse. A la pregunta de si la edad era un factor, el 69 por ciento respondió que sí. Otros sondeos recientes detectan una falta de entusiasmo similar y hay muchos votantes (incluida alrededor de la mitad de los demócratas) que consideran que Biden es demasiado mayor para volver a aspirar a la Casa Blanca.Visto así, es fácil imaginar que su edad pudiera perjudicar la campaña de reelección que anunció de manera formal el martes. Biden, quien ya es el presidente de mayor edad en la historia de Estados Unidos, tendría 86 años al terminar su segundo mandato. Los republicanos han difundido videos de sus lapsus verbales, así como de ocasiones en las que tartamudea, y han sugerido que reflejan un declive cognitivo. La edad de Biden es un chiste frecuente en los programas de la televisión nocturna.Sin embargo, un análisis de las encuestas y las investigaciones académicas muestra un panorama sorprendentemente más ambiguo. Con la advertencia obvia de que una equivocación grave relacionada con la edad o una crisis de salud podrían cambiar las cosas, hay buenas razones para pensar que la edad de Biden puede importar menos de lo que sugieren algunas encuestas.1. Teoría contra prácticaCon frecuencia los estadounidenses suelen expresar su preocupación por los gobernantes de mayor edad, pero eso no ha evitado que voten por candidatos más viejos.En una encuesta reciente de USA Today y la Universidad de Suffolk, la mitad de los estadounidenses dijeron que la edad ideal de un presidente era de entre 51 y 65 años. Una cuarta parte dijo que prefería que los candidatos tuvieran menos de 50 años. Pero cinco de los últimos ocho candidatos presidenciales, incluidos Biden en 2020 y Donald Trump (dos veces), han superado los 65 años. En varios casos, los votantes los eligieron frente a oponentes mucho más jóvenes en las elecciones primarias. Y, en el último siglo, se ha elegido a decenas de senadores o representantes cuya edad supera los 80 años.La preocupación por la edad también tiene más matices de lo que parece a primera vista. Aunque la mayoría de los electores se muestran a favor de limitar la edad de los políticos, no se ponen de acuerdo sobre cuál debería ser ese límite. Muchos también afirman que los legisladores de más edad aportan una valiosa experiencia y no se les debería prohibir servir al país si siguen gozando de buena salud.Eso no significa que los estadounidenses que dicen estar preocupados por la edad estén mintiendo. Sus decisiones al momento de votar pueden reflejar las opciones disponibles. “No hay nada incoherente en que la gente diga que una persona de 80 años no debería ser presidente y luego vote por un candidato de 80 años si esa es la única opción que se les da”, manifestó Whit Ayres, encuestador republicano.Tampoco está claro que la edad sea una desventaja para los candidatos más viejos. Los gobernantes mayores suelen tener índices de aprobación más bajos que los más jóvenes, según un estudio de 2022 del que es coautor Damon Roberts, doctorando en Ciencias Políticas por la Universidad de Colorado en Boulder. Pero en su investigación, los votantes mostraron una apertura más o menos similar al momento de apoyar a candidatos hipotéticos de 23, 50 o 77 años.También sucede que, por estos días, hay muchos políticos de mayor edad en diferentes cargos. “No creo que Biden en particular se vea muy fuera de lugar en la escena política de este momento”, afirmó Roberts.Sin embargo, nadie de la edad de Biden se ha postulado a la reelección presidencial, y otros expertos dudan que se integre facilmente. “La presidencia es fundamentalmente diferente”, dijo Ayres. “La visibilidad es mucho mayor”.2. El partido ante todoLos sondeos sugieren que los votantes perciben temas más importantes para Biden que para candidatos de mayor edad anteriores (aunque los encuestadores parecen haber preguntado con menos frecuencia sobre la edad de los candidatos pasados). Pero, en estos tiempos de polarización, es mucho más probable que la lealtad al partido determine la elección de los ciudadanos.“A fin de cuentas, vamos a votar por el partido ‘D’ o por el ‘R’”, afirma Karlyn Bowman, investigadora emérita del American Enterprise Institute que estudia las encuestas de opinión pública. “En este momento, la lealtad partidista es tan fuerte que eso prevalecerá sobre las demás preocupaciones”.La percepción de las capacidades de Biden también depende de la afiliación partidista. Los republicanos —quienes probablemente no apoyarían a ningún candidato demócrata, por muy en forma que esté— son los más propensos a decir que Biden es demasiado viejo para continuar en la presidencia. Su edad tampoco ha impedido que la gran mayoría de los demócratas consideren su mandato como un éxito (aunque los demócratas más jóvenes muestran menos entusiasmo ante la postulación de Biden a la reelección).“La gente piensa en otras cosas a la hora de votar”, dijo Margie Omero, directora de GBAO, una encuestadora demócrata. “El historial de Biden, el historial de Trump, lo que ven como el futuro del país, los logros legislativos, la lucha por el derecho al aborto”.En última instancia, la edad de Biden podría ser más importante para los votantes indecisos que están abiertos a respaldar a cualquiera de los partidos, lo que les da una gran influencia para elegir al ganador. “Es una porción muy pequeña de la población en la actualidad, pero aún así, es muy importante”, afirmó Bowman.3. Solo un númeroEsto nos lleva al tema de si Biden podrá influir en las opiniones de los electores sobre su idoneidad para el cargo. En febrero, Omero y sus colegas de Navigator Research, una encuestadora demócrata, reclutaron a un pequeño grupo de votantes indecisos para que vieran el discurso de Biden sobre el Estado de la Unión. Antes del discurso, solo un 35 por ciento de ellos lo describía como “apto para la presidencia”. Tras el discurso —en el que se produjo un intercambio de opiniones inesperado entre Biden y los congresistas republicanos sobre la Seguridad Social y Medicare— el 55 por ciento consideró que Biden tiene las capacidades necesarias para ejercer el cargo.Biden también podría tratar de evadir este tema si continúa limitando sus apariciones públicas. En 1996, Ayres trabajó en la campaña de reelección al Senado de Carolina del Sur de Strom Thurmond, quien en ese entonces tenía 93 años, en un momento en el que, al parecer, sufría un deterioro cognitivo. “Intentamos mantenerlo lo más invisible posible”, dijo Ayres.Presidentes anteriores, como Dwight Eisenhower y Ronald Reagan, lograron superar las dudas sobre sus edades y ganaron la reelección con un buen margen.Pero Biden es mayor de lo que ellos eran cuando trataron de reelegirse. “La cuestión no es tanto cómo es hoy”, dijo Ayres. “La cuestión es cómo será en 2028”. Es posible que el mandatario tenga que confiar en que los votantes pasen por alto cualquier preocupación a largo plazo sobre su edad.4. El factor TrumpTrump, quien tendrá 78 años el día de las elecciones, parece ser el aspirante mejor posicionado para ganar las primarias republicanas de 2024. Supera a su competidor potencial más cercano —el gobernador de Florida, Ron DeSantis, de 44 años— en las encuestas nacionales y en los respaldos de otros republicanos.Aunque las edades similares de Biden y Trump podrían hacer que el tema pierda importancia; por ahora, los electores dicen estar más preocupados por la edad de Biden. Y si Trump ataca con agresividad el estado físico de Biden, podría generar más escrutinio sobre ese tema que un aspirante más joven pero más comedido.Pero también es un mensaje que Trump ya ha usado antes —como cuando, en 2020, le puso el sobrenombre de “Sleepy Joe” (“Joe, el dormilón”)— en una contienda que no ganó. En algún momento, todo ese discurso sobre la edad de Biden puede comenzar a parecerle anticuada a los votantes.Ian Prasad Philbrick es redactor del boletín The Morning. @IanPrasad More

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      How Much Do Voters Really Care About Biden’s Age?

      by

      The evidence suggests it may end up mattering less to voters than their responses to polls indicate.Many Americans say they do not want President Biden to run for re-election, and his age is a big reason. In an NBC News poll released last weekend, 70 percent of adults said Mr. Biden, who is 80, should not run again. Asked if age was a factor, 69 percent of them said yes. Other recent surveys detect a similar lack of enthusiasm, with many voters — including around half of Democrats — calling him too old to seek the White House again.Taken at face value, it’s easy to imagine that his age could undermine the re-election campaign he formally announced on Tuesday. Mr. Biden, already the oldest president in U.S. history, would be 86 at the end of his second term. Republicans have amplified video of his verbal miscues — he also has a stutter — and suggested they reflect cognitive decline. Mr. Biden’s age is a frequent punchline on late-night television.But a review of the polling and academic research paints a surprisingly mixed picture. With the obvious caveat that a serious age-related gaffe or health crisis could change things, there are good reasons to think that Biden’s age may matter less than some polls suggest.1. Theory vs. practiceAmericans often express concern about aging leaders, but that hasn’t stopped them from voting for older candidates.In a recent USA Today/Suffolk University survey, half of Americans said that the ideal age for a president was between 51 and 65. Another quarter said they preferred candidates to be 50 or younger. But five of the last eight presidential nominees, including Mr. Biden in 2020 and Donald J. Trump (twice), have been well over 65. In several cases, voters chose them over much younger primary opponents. And dozens of senators or representatives over 80 have been elected in the past century.Concerns over age are also more nuanced than they may first appear. While most voters favor age limits for politicians, they disagree over what that limit should be. Many voters also say older lawmakers bring valuable experience and shouldn’t be barred from serving if they remain in good health.That doesn’t mean Americans who say they’re concerned about age are lying. Their voting choices may reflect the available options. “There’s nothing inconsistent about people saying no one in their 80s should be president and then voting for someone in their 80s if that’s the only choice they’re given,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster.It’s also not clear that age is a disadvantage for older candidates. Older leaders tend to have lower approval ratings than younger ones, according to a 2022 study co-authored by Damon Roberts, a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Colorado Boulder. But in his research, voters expressed relatively equal openness to supporting hypothetical candidates who were 23, 50 or 77.There are also just a lot of old politicians in office these days. “I don’t think that Biden in particular looks super out of place in the political scene right now,” Mr. Roberts said.Still, no one Mr. Biden’s age has ever sought re-election to the presidency, and other experts doubt he will blend in so easily. “The presidency is fundamentally different,” Mr. Ayres said. “The visibility is so much greater.”2. Party above allPolls do suggest that voters discern bigger issues for Mr. Biden than past older candidates (although pollsters seem to have asked about past candidates’ ages less often). But in a polarized era, party loyalty is far likelier to determine voters’ choice.“In the final analysis, we’re going to vote for the ‘D’ or the ‘R,’ ” said Karlyn Bowman, an emeritus fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies public opinion polling. “Partisan loyalty is so strong at this point that that will trump the other concerns.”Perceptions of Mr. Biden’s fitness also track with partisanship. Republicans — who are unlikely to back any Democratic candidate, no matter how spry — are the most apt to say that Mr. Biden is too old to run. His age also hasn’t stopped the vast majority of Democrats from deeming his presidency a success (though younger Democrats have expressed less eagerness to see Mr. Biden run again).“People are thinking about the election through the lens of other things,” said Margie Omero, a principal at GBAO, a Democratic polling firm. “Biden’s record, Trump’s record, what they see as the future of the country, legislative accomplishments, the fight for abortion rights.”Mr. Biden’s age may ultimately matter most to swing voters who are open to backing either party, giving them outsize clout to pick the winner. “It’s a very small slice of the population now, but still, it’s a very consequential one,” Ms. Bowman said.3. Just a numberThat brings us to whether Mr. Biden will be able to influence voters’ views about his fitness for office. In February, Ms. Omero and her colleagues at Navigator Research, a Democratic polling firm, recruited a small group of swing voters to watch Mr. Biden’s State of the Union address. Before the speech, just 35 percent of them described him as “up for the job of president.” After the address — which featured an impromptu back-and-forth with congressional Republicans over Social Security and Medicare — 55 percent rated him that way.Mr. Biden could also try to dodge the issue by continuing to limit his public appearances. Mr. Ayres worked on the 1996 Senate re-election campaign for Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, then 93, at a time when he was reportedly experiencing cognitive decline. “We tried to keep him as invisible as possible,” Mr. Ayres said.Past presidents, including Dwight Eisenhower and Mr. Reagan, have overcome questions about their age to win re-election decisively.But Mr. Biden is older than they were during their re-election campaigns. “The issue is not so much what he is like today,” Mr. Ayres said. “The issue is what he would be like in 2028.” The president may have to bank on voters overlooking any longer-term concerns about his age.4. The Trump factorMr. Trump, who will be 78 on Election Day, appears best positioned to win the 2024 Republican primary. He leads his closest potential competitor — Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, 44 — in national polls and endorsements from other Republicans.Though the similar ages of Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump could make the issue a wash, for now voters say they’re more concerned about Mr. Biden’s age. And if Mr. Trump aggressively attacks Mr. Biden’s fitness, he may draw more scrutiny to it than a younger but more restrained challenger could.But it’s also a message Mr. Trump has used before (see: 2020’s “Sleepy Joe”) in a matchup he didn’t win. At some point, all the talk about Mr. Biden’s age may start to feel to voters like old hat. More

    • 175 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      Biden Wants to Be President Into His 80s. How Might Age Affect His Health?

      by

      Experts weigh in on octogenarian health.President Biden has announced his plans to run for re-election in 2024. If he wins, he will be 82 when he takes office and 86 when his term ends — which would establish him, for a second time, as the oldest person to assume the U.S. presidency. (Donald Trump is not far behind; he will be 78 during the 2024 election and would enter octogenarian territory during another presidential term.)President Biden is “a healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male,” according to a February report from the White House physician, Dr. Kevin C. O’Connor. Although he was recently treated for basal cell carcinoma, a common and slow-growing skin cancer, Mr. Biden has no major medical problems, doesn’t smoke or drink and exercises at least five days a week.“The spectrum of health at older ages varies so widely,” said Dr. Holly Holmes, a professor and the chair in gerontology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. “As we get older, we are more and more unlike our peers, and it becomes harder to generalize what a ‘typical’ 80-year-old would be like.”Dr. R. Sean Morrison, a professor and the chair in geriatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, added that the changes that occur during aging happen to different people at different times. Some 85-year-olds have healthier bodies than some 65-year-olds, and much of the variation comes down to genes and a person’s lifestyle before the age of 60.Yet, as people enter their 80s, and even their mid-to-late 70s, some standard age-related shifts tend to occur, like muscle loss and a drop in bone strength, that make people more prone to disease and injury.Here’s a head-to-toe snapshot of the body and mind of an octogenarian and the potential problems doctors look out for.BrainMost healthy people in their 80s don’t have trouble performing complex cognitive tasks such as problem-solving and planning, Dr. Morrison said, but they may find it harder to multitask and learn new things. Some may struggle to remember words. Reaction time can also slow, but usually only slightly — on the order of fractions of a millisecond, Dr. Morrison said.Scientists don’t know exactly why these changes happen, but the brain does get slightly smaller with age because of brain cell loss, so that could be playing a role, said Dr. Scott Kaiser, director of geriatric cognitive health at Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, Calif. Interestingly, certain cognitive skills — such as vocabulary and abstract reasoning — may stay constant or even improve with age, also for unknown reasons, he said.Dementia does become more common with age, but it still only affects a minority of adults in their 80s. According to the National Health and Aging Trends Study, 10.9 percent of adults ages 80 to 84, and 18.7 percent of adults ages 85 to 89, dealt with dementia in 2019. “These conditions are not a normal or inevitable part of aging,” Dr. Kaiser said.Eyes and earsVision tends to worsen over time. Octogenarians often need reading glasses and become more sensitive to glare, Dr. Morrison said. Nearly 70 percent of adults over 80 have cataracts, a clouding of the lens of the eye, but the condition can be treated effectively with surgery, he said.Age-related hearing loss is another common problem. First, people lose the ability to hear high-frequency sounds such as bird chirps and alarm clocks; this can start early, even in a person’s 30s or 40s. Low-frequency changes, affecting the ability to hear men’s voices and bass sounds in music, come later. Hearing loss can be treated with hearing aids — now available over the counter — or other devices, and it’s crucial to do so: “We have increasing data now that suggests that people who go longer with untreated hearing loss and don’t get hearing correction are more likely to develop dementia or diseases like Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Morrison said.Heart and lungsAs a person ages, heart rate slows slightly, and the heart can’t beat as fast during physical activity, which can make aerobic exercise more challenging. That said, an aging healthy heart typically “functions quite well,” said Dr. Lona Mody, a geriatrician at Michigan Medicine.Doctors monitor for heart disease in their octogenarian patients. “Blood vessels become stiffer with age, and this leads to higher blood pressure,” Dr. Mody said, which can increase the risk of hypertension and heart disease. According to the American Heart Association, 83 percent of men and 87 percent of women age 80 and older have heart disease, sometimes requiring the use of medications or surgery. Mr. Biden has asymptomatic atrial fibrillation — an irregular heartbeat — and takes apixaban (Eliquis), an anticoagulant drug that is often prescribed to help prevent blood clots and strokes. He also takes rosuvastatin (Crestor) to lower his cholesterol.Lung capacity often slightly drops with age because of changes in the strength and elasticity of the lung tissue and diaphragm, which can make breathing a bit harder, Dr. Mody said. One disease doctors look out for is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, an inflammatory lung disease seen in just under 11 percent of people 65 and over.Digestive systemPeople in their 80s tend to eat less than they used to, in part because “food doesn’t taste quite the same,” Dr. Morrison said. Over time, people lose taste buds and their sense of smell, he said, both of which affect how much they enjoy eating. This helps to explain why older adults have an increased risk of nutritional deficiencies.But seniors also need fewer calories than younger people because of losses in lean muscle mass and slowing metabolism. According to the government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, women age 60 and older should consume a minimum of 1,600 calories a day, and men age 60 and older a minimum of 2,000 calories a day (as opposed to a minimum of 1,800 for women and 2,400 for men ages 19 to 30).Older people are at greater risk for heartburn and gastrointestinal reflux. Mr. Biden’s occasional coughing and throat-clearing are tied to gastroesophageal reflux, and he takes famotidine (Pepcid) as needed to treat his symptoms.Octogenarians digest food more slowly, too. Research suggests that 34 percent of women and 26 percent of men age 84 or older experience constipation.Bones and jointsBones become more brittle with age. The body starts to reabsorb the minerals that strengthen them, such as calcium and phosphate, in part because the intestines can’t absorb what is needed from food as effectively as they used to. For women, this degeneration is accelerated by the drop in estrogen after menopause, which reduces bone density.Decreased bone density puts older people at an increased risk for bone fractures and osteoporosis. In 2020, when Mr. Biden was the president-elect, he had a hairline fracture in his foot, requiring him to wear a walking boot as he healed. The bone injuries that doctors worry about most are hip fractures, which hospitalize more than 300,000 Americans over the age of 65 every year. “Hip fractures are one of the most common reasons for hospitalization among people 85 and over,” said Dr. Susan Wehry, a geriatrician at the University of New England. Recovery is often difficult because of complications such as infections, sometimes picked up at the hospital, and internal bleeding, or because conditions such as heart disease slow healing.Joints can also become more painful because the bones and cartilage that make up the joints start to wear down. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of all Americans over 65 have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis, which causes joint pain and stiffness. President Biden has been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the spine, which has stiffened his gait.SkinThe risk of skin cancer increases as people get older. The average age at which Americans are diagnosed with melanoma, a potentially deadly skin cancer, is 65. Men are at higher risk for melanoma than women. Dr. Holmes recommends that people in their 80s see a doctor or dermatologist once a year for a skin check.Non-melanoma forms of skin cancer, such as basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, affect more than three million Americans a year. These cancers grow slower than melanomas and are highly treatable when detected and removed early. In February, President Biden, who has said he spent a lot of time in the sun during his youth, had a basal cell carcinoma removed from his chest. He also had several other non-melanoma skin cancers removed before his presidency.Strength and balanceMost healthy people in their mid-80s can and should engage in physical activity, and many remain strong and agile, Dr. Holmes said. She encourages patients to participate in aerobic exercise and weight training a couple of days a week and to stretch at least once a week, but sometimes recommends modifications for patients with pain, orthopedic problems or cardiac issues.Adults “start to lose muscle mass and start to gain fat” as they get older, Dr. Morrison said. Between 42 and 62 percent of people in their mid-80s have sarcopenia, a disease characterized by loss of muscle mass and strength. Common symptoms include difficulty walking, ascending stairs and holding shopping bags.In addition, the spaces between the spinal vertebrae dry and compress, causing people to lean forward, which can affect their balance, Dr. Morrison said. People in their 80s tend to walk slowly and have a short gait, which also worsens balance, he added.In some older adults, the insulating layer that surrounds nerves and helps them communicate with one another, called myelin, starts to break down. This can slow reflexes and make people clumsy, Dr. Kaiser said.“One important consequence of these age-related changes to the brain and overall nervous system — along with changes to other systems and a broad range of other factors — is an increased risk of falls,” Dr. Kaiser said, which in turn can become more dangerous because bones are weaker and break more easily.Stress, stamina and sleepPeople in their mid-80s tend to have lower energy than younger people, so they fatigue more easily, Dr. Morrison said.Dr. Mody added that stress and changes to routine can be “harder to bounce back from” because older people’s tissues and organs take a longer time to recover after stresses or injuries. People may also take longer to recover from colds, Covid-19 and other infections, as the immune system becomes less responsive with age.Many older adults don’t sleep well, in part because they spend less time in deep slow-wave sleep, which makes them more prone to middle-of-the-night wake-ups. “Eighty-year-olds tend to sleep about an hour less than younger adults,” Dr. Morrison said.Still, it’s important to remember that everybody ages differently, and that age does not define a person’s health. Many people in their 80s are healthier than people 20 years younger, Dr. Mody said, and the choices they make late in life matter, too: Research suggests that adopting healthy behaviors even in the ninth decade can extend one’s life.Many octogenarians, Dr. Holmes said, are “quite resilient.” More

    • 100 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      Biden Should Take Voters’ Concerns About Age Seriously

      by

      Only 47 percent of Democrats want to see Joe Biden on the ballot in 2024, according to the latest Associated Press poll. That’s not because they think he’s done a bad job in office. Democrats tend to like President Biden and continue to give him good marks on handling the economy and foreign policy.But many Democrats, particularly younger ones, are worried that he will simply be too old to be effective in a second term, which would end when he is 86. “My problem with him running in 2024 is that he’s just so old,” one Democrat told pollsters.That may be deeply unfair — people age at different rates — and in Mr. Biden’s case, it’s impossible to deny that politics and conspiracy theories, rather than facts, fuel at least some of the concern. But candidates shouldn’t pretend, as Mr. Biden often does, that advanced age isn’t an issue. Mr. Biden is 80 now, the oldest American to serve as president, and even supporters, including the political strategist David Axelrod, have expressed deep worries that his age will be both a political liability in 2024 and a barrier to a successful second term. If Mr. Biden runs again, as he recently said he intends to, questions will persist about his age until he does more to assure voters that he is up to the job.Mr. Biden’s age makes him an outlier even in an era when the nation’s political leadership is getting older. The current Senate, where the average age is 63.9 years, is the second oldest since 1789. The House, where the average age is 57.5 years, is the third oldest. By comparison, the average age in the United States is 38.8 years.Concerns about age — both in terms of fitness for office and being out of touch with the moment — are legitimate, as Mr. Biden acknowledged in an interview in February with ABC News. His standard line, repeated in that interview, is: “The only thing I can say is, ‘Watch me.’”But Mr. Biden has given voters very few chances to do just that — to watch him — and his refusal to engage with the public regularly raises questions about his age and health.The usual White House method of demonstrating a president’s mastery is to take tough questions in front of cameras, but Mr. Biden has not taken advantage of that opportunity, as The Times reported on Friday. He has held fewer news conferences and media interviews than most of his modern predecessors. Since 1923, only Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan took fewer questions per month from reporters, and neither represents a model of presidential openness that Mr. Biden should want to emulate. His reticence has created an opening for critics and skeptics.The president also needs to talk about his health openly and without embarrassment, and to end the pretense that it doesn’t matter. Those who are watching him with an open mind have seen a strong performance this year. His State of the Union address on Feb. 7 shattered the Republican attempts to portray him as doddering. With a passion rarely seen at one of these speeches — let alone in his political history — Mr. Biden presented a remarkably effective defense of his presidency and gave a preview of what is likely to be an imminent re-election campaign.The Times reported last summer that Mr. Biden’s overall energy level has declined, and he continues to stumble over words in his public appearances. But those flaws alone don’t signal a politician who is too old to run again. His first term, in fact, is already full of accomplishment: The economy has added 12.6 million jobs since he took office, inflation is cooling, and he has signed significant legislation to fight climate change, improve access to health care, and make investments in manufacturing and infrastructure. He has stood up to Russia’s destructive campaign in Ukraine, and rallied the West to Ukraine’s side.Nonetheless, as Mr. Biden nears his actuarial life expectancy, concerns about his ability to handle the demands of campaigning and a potential second term are unlikely to disappear. Only a combination of performance and complete candor will change the minds of skeptical voters. Old age remains a sensitive topic, and many people, particularly men, are reluctant to discuss personal infirmities for fear of demonstrating weakness or being pushed aside by impatient younger generations. There is good reason for the federal government’s prohibition of age discrimination in employment — a protection that begins at age 40. Ageism is real.That law, however, doesn’t apply to people who are running for office. Voters have every right to ask questions about the medical condition of a candidate who wants their support. In 2016 both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton gave the public very few details about their health. (Mr. Trump released a particularly preposterous doctor’s letter claiming he would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”)Mr. Biden acknowledged during the lead-up to the 2020 campaign that he was “chronologically” old but said it was up to voters to decide whether that was important. In that election, against an opponent who was only four years younger, the answer was clearly no. In November 2021, he released a medical report that said he was a “healthy, vigorous 78-year-old” and noted nothing more serious than a stiffened gait due to spinal changes and some acid reflux that caused him to cough.His most recent health summary, released on Feb. 16, said much the same thing, describing him as a “healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” But his cognitive abilities went unmentioned. That’s something he should discuss publicly and also demonstrate to the voters, who expect the president to reflect the nation’s strength.If he runs again, Mr. Biden will need to provide explicit reassurance to voters; many of them have seen family members decline rapidly in their 80s. Americans are watching what Mr. Biden says and does, just as he has asked them to do.Source photograph by Azure-Dragon, via Getty Images.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More