This is the first of a two-part series examining the issue and controversy over the age question and President Biden. This is an excerpt from Hutchinson's Forthcoming book Is Biden Really Too Old? -The Politics of Age and Ageism in America (Middle Passage Press).
In April 2023, President Joe Biden announced that he would run for a second term in the Oval Office. Practically in the next breath, he tried to take the inevitable age question off the table. He was blunt, "age doesn't register with me."
"They're going to see a race, and they're going to judge whether or not I have it or don't have it." He meant of course the voters. He continued, "I respect them taking a hard look at it. I'd take a hard look at it as well. I took a hard look at it before I decided to run."
Biden well knew it would take more than his perfunctory dismissal of age as an issue in the campaign to make it go away. In November 2023, it was plopped back on the table by a seemingly unlikely source. That was former President Obama's key advisor, David Axelrod, and a Democratic Party stalwart.
He caused a minor stir when he told an interviewer, "I think he has a 50-50 shot here, but no better than that, maybe a little worse. He thinks he can cheat nature here and it's really risky." Axelrod's slap at Biden on the age issue drew a mix of criticism and agreement from a lot of Democrats.
Biden did not comment. However, there was little doubt that he was mindful of Axelrod and the repeated knocks of other Democrats
about his age. Yet, it was something that others worried about, but he wasn't one of them. Close friends all agreed that he felt that if he were fit and healthy, he would continue to be politically active.
Biden though took no chances. In February 2023, he voluntarily released a medical report from November 2021 almost one year into his term that judged him as "healthy" and "vigorous" and said he was "fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency." The report was updated to February 2023. It found no change in his health and fitness.
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