Age is not ‘just a number’ (and other thoughts on Joe Biden’s debate showing)

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1. A take I haven’t written elsewhere

Age is not ‘just a number’ (and other thoughts on Joe Biden’s debate showing)

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In Colorado for a fellowship event last week, I watched about an hour of the presidential debate, something I’ve not done in that format—the live broadcast rather than clips, not to mention in a group setting with a politically diverse crowd—for years.

In tone and content it was even worse than I expected, and, like everyone else, I could not help but notice that President Biden looked very old. As others have observed, the effect was most obvious in the split screen moments: When Biden was talking, former President Donald Trump would keep his face animated and engaging. When Trump talked, Biden went blank-eyed and slack-jawed.

The subsequent onslaught of calls for Biden to drop out of the race on grounds of age, now including at least one from a sitting member of Congress in his own party, were arguably belated. But honestly, I get it. Even with knowledge of all the accounts of his recent decline, this performance was pretty shocking.

I’m mulling a longer, more evergreen piece on this at a later date (the timing of my travel plus the holiday tomorrow wasn’t great for a quick response at CT, and I decided to write on the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling instead). For now, though, three thoughts.