{"id":9378,"date":"2020-03-05T06:07:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T14:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=9378"},"modified":"2020-03-05T06:07:02","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T14:07:02","slug":"the-presidency-is-an-old-boys-club-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=9378","title":{"rendered":"“The Presidency Is an Old Boys\u2019 Club “, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gail Collins,\u00a0<\/span>Opinion Columnist, March 5, 2020<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s pick someone who doesn\u2019t keep us awake nights<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n

So sorry, Democratic millennials. You\u2019ve got to drop the idea that baby boomers control everything. When it comes to the Democratic presidential nomination, the finalists are too old to qualify.<\/p>\n

Bernie Sanders, 78, and Joe Biden, 77, were both born during World War II. Is that a problem? I\u2019ve always had a theory that as people get older, if they\u2019re lucky, they get better and better at a more limited set of skills. (I use this argument frequently when the issue of my inability to keep computer passwords straight comes up.)<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s true, we\u2019d really have an argument for Biden, who has endless experience working with Congress and dealing with foreign leaders. Sanders, on the other hand, is very, very, very good at giving his one basic speech. I believe he could deliver it while being swung from a crane over the Statue of Liberty.<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/picture><\/div>\n

Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders in a debate in February. The Democratic presidential contest is now down to septuagenarians.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Chang W. Lee\/The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Whoever wins, of course, will run against Donald Trump, 73, who has never made any attempt to actually learn how to run a country but has super-perfected his genius for bragging and insulting people on televisionTrump is already making a big deal about Biden\u2019s tendency to garble his words when he\u2019s talking in public. \u201cWATCH: Joe Biden confuses his wife with his sister,\u201d tweeted<\/a> the president\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
That was when Biden was making introductions during his victory speech Tuesday, and it was actually sort of funny. (\u201cAh, you switched on me!\u201d) But I hope the Democrats are stockpiling video for the final campaign of, say, Trump\u2019s speech at the Lincoln Memorial<\/a> praising America\u2019s revolutionary army for the time it \u201crammed the ramparts\u201d and \u201ctook over the airports.\u201d<\/div>\n

Or the time he told a crowd<\/a> \u201cthe kidney has a very special place in the heart.\u201d Or the time he called his wife \u201cMelanie\u201d in a tweet<\/a>. Or the time he demanded the media look into the \u201coranges\u201d<\/a> of the Mueller investigation. Or the time he referred to the midterm elections<\/a> as the \u201cmidtown and midturn.\u201d Or . \u2026<\/p>\n

We could go on and on. And you know, before November I bet we will.<\/p>\n

Super Tuesday ruined the presidential hopes of Mike Bloomberg, 78, who bowed out with an endorsement of Biden. \u201cI\u2019ve always believed that data should inform our decisions,\u201d Bloomberg said in what was nevertheless a very emotional address for him.<\/p>\n

Well, money won\u2019t buy you everything. But it will certainly make Bloomberg a venerated Biden supporter. He\u2019ll be fine. Most of us would never get over having spent $600 million<\/a> to win the delegates from American Samoa. But financially for Bloomberg, that\u2019s pretty much like blowing $10 on a bad cheeseburger.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Elizabeth Warren, 70, was the youngest serious candidate in the Super Tuesday battle, and it certainly wasn\u2019t any help. Coming in third in her home state was a terrible way to end a campaign. But when Americans in the future look back on her career, they\u2019ll remember Warren as one of the pioneers who, like Hillary Clinton, helped to get the nation used to the idea that there\u2019s nothing unusual about voting for a woman to be president.<\/p>\n

Either Biden or Sanders, if elected, would be the oldest American entering a first presidential term. As of right now the record is held by Trump, who was 70, followed by Ronald Reagan, who was 69. Reagan went on to a second term that many people felt was marred by a certain \u2026 mental slippage. It\u2019s sort of hard to tell whether Trump is failing in that way since he was so awful when he started out.<\/p>\n

Well, we\u2019ve had plenty of presidents who seemed to go off the rails in the prime of life. And these days an average man of 77 has about a 10-year life expectancy. That goes up if he doesn\u2019t smoke or drink. And I\u2019ll bet it really skyrockets if he has the entire staff of Walter Reed hospital at his beck and call.The first time age was a big issue in a presidential election was back in 1840. William Henry Harrison, the Whig candidate, was 67 and his opponents referred to him as \u201ca living mass of ruined matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrison promptly released a doctor\u2019s report: \u201cvivacity and almost youthfulness of feelings. \u2026 Bodily vigor as good as that of most men his age. Subject to no disease but periodic headache.\u201d For its time, it was probably more thorough than the one we got from Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n

Then, of course, Harrison got elected, went to Washington, and died a month after the inauguration. The only lesson the nation should derive from that story is that it\u2019s a bad idea to give an extremely long inaugural speech in inclement weather.<\/p>\n

Trump, who revels in his ability to attach insulting adjectives to people\u2019s names, calls Sanders \u201cCrazy Bernie.\u201d That\u2019s a tad ironic coming from a man who has been driving the nation nuts for more than three years.<\/p>\n

The president calls Biden \u201cSleepy Joe,\u201d which is maybe an age-related insult. But from Biden\u2019s point of view, it\u2019s not bad at all. Right now there\u2019s nothing the nation would welcome more than a president whose worst flaw is making everybody feel like taking a nap.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

aw is making everybody feel like taking a nap.<\/p>\n

We could so use some downtime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Gail Collins is an Op-Ed columnist and a former member of the editorial board, and was the first woman to serve as the Times editorial page editor, from 2001 to 2007.<\/em><\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gail Collins,\u00a0Opinion Columnist, March 5, 2020 Let\u2019s pick someone who doesn\u2019t keep us awake nights So sorry, Democratic millennials. You\u2019ve got to drop the idea that baby boomers control everything. When it comes to the Democratic presidential nomination, the finalists are too old to qualify. Bernie Sanders, 78, and Joe Biden, 77, were both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9379,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378\/revisions\/9379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}