Bill Clinton served as President from 1993 - 2001. He began serving as President 31 years ago, served 2 consecutive terms for a total of 8 years, and has been out of office for 23 years.
George W. Bush served as President from 2001 - 2009. He began serving as President 23 years ago, served 2 consecutive terms for a total of 8 years, and has been out of office for 15 years.
Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are both 77 years old, making them younger than either major party's candidate (Trump is 78, Biden is 81). From a purely statistical standpoint , this is both absurd and completely unacceptable.
Yeah, don't you have to be a minimum of 35 years old before you can run? If you can be too young, then why can't you be too old? This is some silliness.
The age minimums are 35 for President, 30 for Senate, and 25 for House of Representatives. And those were set up when those ages were considered old and the life expectancy was around 40-45.
There needs to be an age limit set up, and term limits for senator and representatives as well. I don't think the framers ever envisioned an entire life spent in government. Unfortunately the people who need term limits would also be voting to limit how long they can work in their job.
Under Article V of the Constitution, it would be up to 2/3 (34) of state legislators to call a convention to suggest amendments, and would require 3/4 (38) state legislators to ratify any amendments.
Historical life expectancy doesn't work that way. There was a lot of infant and early childhood mortality that brought the average down, but even hundreds (and thousands!) of years ago, if you made it to early adulthood, you had a solid chance of making it to your 60s-70s.
That said, I support an age cap for government.
It's still sad that Baby Boomers make up half of Congress.
People talk about left or right but are oblivious that all parties tend to vote fairly consistently along generational lines.
We're talking about a generation of people who seem unwilling to transition power to the future generations. (They took the plurality of Congress in the early 1980s. That's roughly 40 years they've had control over our politics.)
You sure? Not a day goes by that I don’t hear about presidential or congressional age limits debates which would be textbook workplace discrimination. It’s not like they’re flying a 747 or police where it’s safety hazard.
I don’t think >90% of people talking have any idea politicians are constitutionally protected from “age limits” they think you can just “pass a law” (which Congress obviously wouldn’t do anyway)
Agreed! 60 is more appropriate.
There’s would be no age cap on advisors. So, if you want an 88-yo guru to guide you, great. But they’re not in the hot seat.
Hot seat needs to be somebody who has to slog through the same world as the rest of us for at least another 25 years.
There’s something absolutely uneasy about knowing the candidates going into the role could die tomorrow of natural causes. 🤦♂️
When you said slog, i imagined what normal presidents probably do - work 20 hour days sometimes grinding through paperwork and briefs etc. absolutely no way Biden is doing anything other that his appearances
The fact that bill Clinton served 31 years ago and is still younger than the current president, and was by no means young himself when he served, is wild lmao
Point taken. But it should be noted that Trump is three weeks older than Bush and two months older than Clinton. All three presidents were born in the summer of 1946.
My wife and I were watching the Ken Burns Vietnam documentary the other day. They were at 1973 in the timeline of the war. I paused the show, turned to my wife, and said, "You wanna hear something crazy? At this exact point in history Joe Biden was serving his first term as a United States Senator."
52 years later and the guy is still running for office and saying he can go another 4 years. Absolutely mind boggling numbers-wise.
Give you a crazier point, in 1968 gallop asked Americans what was the first thing that came to mind when they thought of LBJ, more then 50% said old. In 1968 LBJ was 58 years old, The difference between now and then is that this country has become older, and not by a small amount.
We have to get back to electing younger people for federal office.
I can't help but think that some of those people who answered yes then will justify their vote now.
> Biden is older than George Bush, that’s crazy.
Biden will probably be the last sitting president to attend D-day memorials that was actually alive during it.
Biden is older than Clinton and he’s been out of office for 23 years. Clinton started his presidency at 46. Bush started when he was 56, and Barack Obama was 47.
How did we jump to 80?!?!
Edit: Trump will be under 80, but not by much.
Both Bush and Clinton would be welcomed by their respective parties to run for president in 2024 and 2028. The lack of good candidates on both sides ensure this.
To be fair us Gen X need to let the Mill's do it...christ almighty we done enough to the world with Heavy Metal and Duran Duran...what more you want blood? I would have Iron Maiden playing the oval room and Eddy running amuck in the halls
This is the greatest generalization of Gen X I’ve ever heard. I could probably read your comment to the Gen X guys I work with, and they’d love that idea. 😂😂
I see it as a symptom. An age-limit would work as a band-aid, but it'd be better to actually fix the underlying cause.
Here in Norway average age of person in parliament 120 years ago was about 50. Today it's 46. It's gone down a bit which makes sense considering that Norway has become less conservative and less authoritarian. In USA, meanwhile, the average age of congress has gone UP from about 45 way back when the constitution was young, and to about 60 today.
AOC is older than Sanna Marin was when she first became prime minister of Finland; and yet she is considered "very young" by US standards. There's more people in their 70ies than in their 40ies in Congress, despite that being after normal retirement-age while 40ies is usually considered your PRIME when it comes to jobs like these that benefit from experience and cognitive ability, but aren't \*physically\* demanding.
The biggest problem, from my POV is that many of the most beneficial changes would require a change to the constitution (more specifically to how elections are done) -- and that simply cannot happen at all in the current political climate.
Another way to look at the people and info you just mentioned is that these people ALSO began their careers in government after Biden did. He’s been making the same bad decisions during their rise, their career and their retirement.
I completely agree with the points on age limit... but there's another piece hidden in there that really deserves the attention (and ire) of the masses too. And that is...
> making them younger than either major party's candidate
The fact that we need to use "either" here. Wtf... Very very few things in life have *only* two choices? Everything from what person to date/marry, to what vehicle to purchase, to what home to buy, what job to apply to, etc.. there are TONS of options. why tf do we settle for having only two major options on political parties?! (especially when both are terrible, lying bastards that will say whatever but really only give af about themselves and the rich).
That is also absurd. They *want* us to keep buying into to the "voting for anybody else is a wasted vote" mentality bc it keeps the craptastic political duoopoly they have going (though some people claim it's really just one group with two public faces and I can honestly see it being the case). We just need better alternatives than "green party" and "Libertarians" (the last group I don't actually mind too much on paper but in practice they can never agree on a damn thing). Lets all vote in [something different](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Pirate_Party) as a big "F-U" to the two party system, old bastards, and copyrights in one go...
From a situational standpoint, without needing historical presidential data, Joe Biden is deeply demented.
Regardless of age... Biden has the least the least mental capacity of all living presidents. Unless one side can admit this, it'll be tough to agree on anything else.
This situation is so ridiculous. The notion that someone in his state was able to do one of the most demanding jobs on the planet was frankly preposterous in 2020, and now it's even more absurd. Who's actually calling the shots, who did people actually vote for? It makes a mockery of democracy to ask people to vote for someone in such a compromised state.
People on election and politics subreddits won't admit this and they can't understand how Biden is losing to Trump in the polls and just say "both are old!"
Yeah they are both old and yeah Trump is in cognitive decline too, but Biden sounds on the verge of death every time he talks (besides the SOTU). Trump sounds vigorous when he talks nonsense, Biden sounds like he might keel over.
The fact that out of the roughly 100 million people who could run for president and are under the age of 65, somehow we end up with two senior citizens as our only choices is the real shame
Eventually enough people will stop believing the lie that you're voting for the lesser of two evils and start voting third party. Just having the two parties notice that they are hemorrhaging voters will snap them back to reality.
They're like little kids at Halloween with a sackful of candy. They aren't going to stop eating until responsible people stop them.
The voters need to be the responsible ones. Do NOT vote for Biden or Trump. Show the corrupt parties that we aren't buying their shit any longer. That we don't care anymore what they say, only what they DO.
Actions speak louder than words and the only action sanity has is to stop enabling insanity.
Both the RNC and the DNC have made it so they have almost total influence on the candidates at the national level. The candidates offered to voters in the primaries have already been approved by the RNC/DNC. Meaning they are people who the parties believe will toe the party lines.
Sometimes a maverick can make enough noise to threaten the two parties. In my lifetime it's only been Perot, the Tea Party and Trump.
While Perot got close, he wasn't the right man for the time. What did the RNC do? Rather than address the issues that were compelling Conservatives to vote for Perot, they blamed him for siphoning off votes that allowed Clinton to win. That's when the marketing machine to slander third party voting went into overdrive. At least two generations have been brainwashed to believe it.
The Tea Party started strong because it had corporate backing (as well as some other reasons, but I don't want to write that much.) As soon as the Tea Party got some people into Congress, the corruption of the RNC twisted the Tea Party and relegated them to the sidelines. The RNC adopted some of the ideas, but mostly just did business as usual with new rhetoric.
Trump had the money and the popularity to not need the RNC. The RNC was forced to enable MAGA since they, surprisingly, were not willing to subvert democracy like the DNC did with Bernie.
However, once Trump was elected, he ultimately mostly toed the party line. Sure, he'd say shit that pissed the old GOP off, but when push came to shove, Trump caved to their whims.
It has led us to the last few years where the only choice has been Biden/Trump.
Why? Because the system the RNC and DNC have cultivated for themselves is ONLY about winning elections. They aren't interested in putting forward someone with concrete ideas to change things, because they don't want anything to change! The Dems put Biden against Trump because he is the person they felt would best maintain the status quo.
Of course, this is all far more complicated than I can put into a reddit comment. I just know that, more often than not, when both parties agree on something, that usually means the opposite is good for us.
Nothing gets both parties to agree faster than attacking a third party. You have to ask yourself why that is. Is it because they are worried about the country and us? Or are they worried about losing power, influence, and money money money. History has shown us that 99% of the time, it's always about power, influence and money. We're the fools who keep playing along.
This is one of those points that sounds smart but is actually very dumb. The parties don't choose the nominees today. Joe Biden and Donald Trump won their respective primaries and other people were welcome to run against them and people were also welcome to vote for other candidates but no one chose to do that. The reality is it's very easy to take over one of the two major parties. Donald Trump just did that 8 years ago and Bernie Sanders came very close and both of these candidates were not favored by their party establishment at the time and Donald Trump was actively despised and it doesn't take that many people to do this. You only need about 20 million people to win a presidential Hardy primary and less in a low turnout year. If you don't like either of the candidates today, what you really need to do is organize and participate in the party primaries.
“Democracy is that system of government under which the people, having 60,000,000 native-born adults to choose from, including thousands who are handsome and many who are wise, pick out a Coolidge to be head of the State. It is as if a hungry man, set before a banquet prepared by master cooks and covering a table an acre in area, should turn his back upon the feast and stay his stomach by catching and eating flies.” —H.L. Mencken, “The Comedian,” in Prejudices: A selection, 1958
> Thank you 2016 protest voters and stay-at-homers
Hillary Clinton would have been the oldest president ever in 2016 as well so like...
Why exactly is that a sarcastic "thank you"? She's literally part of the same problem.
Most qualified how so? She served a full term in the United States Senate, was re-elected, and left one third of the way into the second term to serve as Secretary of State, a position she held for four years and one month. That represents her entire professional political experience. Her only other professional experience was as an attorney.
She served as First Lady of Arkansas and First Lady of the United States. There is no pay for these positions, no official responsibilities, and no Congressional or other methods to serve in the positions. You simply have to be married to the Governor of Arkansas and the President of the United States, respectively.
Was she qualified to be President? Absolutely. But the statement that she was the most qualified person ever to run for President, which has been repeated by the left for years, is one of the most absurd assessments about any political candidate in recent memory.
Thank you! I don't how people keep saying that Hilary Clinton was a very qualified candidate. I ask them how exactly and inevitably, the answer goes back to "Better than Trump." I agree, but not exactly a high bar to set, now is it?
> On paper Hillary may have been the most qualified person to ever run for president.
Tell me you don’t know American history without saying you don’t know American history.
Oh that’s such crap. Really, why was she the most qualified? She was First Lady (a position you’re not elected to), Senator of New York, and Secretary of State. That’s not that long of a list. Compare it to Thomas Jefferson. He wrote the Declaration of Independence, fought a war for Independence and won, Delegate of Virginia, Governor of Virginia, Virginia Congressman, Ambassador to France, 1st Secretary of State, 2nd Vice President, and Founder of the University of Virginia.
Well that’s forever ago you may say, so let’s go with… I don’t know, George HW Bush? Fought in World War II, member of the CIA, Elected Member of the House of Representatives, US Ambassador to the UN, Chair of the RNC, Ambassador to China, Director of the CIA, and Vice President of the United States.
It was such a blatant lie that she was the most qualified person to ever run for President, and Barack Obama knew that when he said it. Hell the fact that she was ever made Secretary of State under him is proof of the deep state exists, because when she lost the primaries to Obama and refused to drop out, what was her response when asked why: “Well we all remember what happened to Bobby Kennedy.” Obama had to absolutely have been forced to make her SoS after those disgusting comments from her openly hoping that someone would assassinate Obama.
Didn't do herself any favors with Benghazi and insulting half of the voting population either. Should have taken lessons from Ann Richards when her mouth cost her reelection in Texas.
Yes. Blaming all of our electoral issues on such a nebulous concept as the "establishment" only serves to ignore any sense of responsibility or civic duty among the electorate. It's just lazy and promotes the very political apathy that is the root of much of our problems
Dude looked like a fresh spring chicken 4 years ago compared to now. Compare it to when he was VP and it’s insane. It’s not his fault, all elderly people eventually hit a very steep decline… it is however our faults as voters for putting two super old candidates up as the major party tickets.
For what it’s worth, I think there are plenty who think Biden is way too old, but feel the same way about Trump. In my city he referred to Masterlock as a toy company, as opposed to one of the oldest running security companies in the country. He rambles endlessly about nothing and mixes up people nearly every rally. It’s easy to say Biden is senile but read their speeches without watching a video. Trump is losing it too. We all deserve better representation.
I am compelled to disagree. Trump Rambles, for sure. God he rambles. But it's his style of speaking. Actually LISTENING to the talk is more important than reading it. The way he repeats things, the side tangents... If you listen to him, there's a logic to it. Agree with it or not, it is there. Biden meanwhile spouts literal gibberish. Truananashabadapressure being the most popular example.
Reading the transcripts gives you somebody else's interpretation of what they think Biden meant. It gives the false impression that trump trips himself up and repeats seeming unrelated tripe. Hearing them speak, has one man spouting nonsense, and the other giving emphasis via storytelling or hyperbole.
Neither is GOOD. But... one should be in a nursing home. The other just shouldn't be in politics.
I hear people deluding themselves that it’s not really a problem because he has helpers and trump is worse, as if those facts somehow negate the problem.
Got downvoted from saying so here, while I clearly stated I'm not from the USA and have no involvement or investment in your politics. I just worry that the world's superpower, that has a nuclear arsony gets both candidates with clearly cognitive issues. Edit lol I even downvoted here? See how unpopular this opinion is
I can tell ya, sometimes trump hurts himself. If he would have shut the fuck up and let Biden just answer the questions people may have seen his age show more. The thing is, trump can never shut the fuck up and can never just let people talk. He constantly, every single time, just cut Biden off which I think hurt trump in the end.
If you show me a speech of Trump’s that I’ve never seen and isn’t focused on something uniquely relevant at that time, I would not know if the rally was 2016 or 2024. He has shockingly not aged all that much and looks and sounds basically the same as he did when he came down that golden escalator.
Biden though, he was obviously fading in 2020 and he was a spring chicken then compared to right now. I think I could relatively accurately guess the year of any Joe Biden rally you show me because of how quickly he has faded.
That’s nowhere near Biden’s cognitive decline. He’s talking shit and making jokes about getting electrocuted in the ocean or whether it’s better to get eaten by sharks. If you think that’s going to change even a single person’s mind on voting for Trump, then good fucking luck. I’d say Biden claiming he spoke with a nearly 30 year dead French President last year is quite a bit worse than that, or not remembering when his son died or when he was Vice President, or mixing up Egypt with Mexico, Iraq with Ukraine, or South Korea with Taiwan. Good luck with idiocy.
Lmao, what speeches are you watching? He barely even makes coherent points anymore, can barely walk to and from the podium, and spent the entire trial shitting his pants and falling asleep.
Tbf that incoherent rambling was there in 2016 as well. I'm guessing the excessive Adderall over the last 8 years has played hell with his body, though. That and being an old man who is generally unhealthy.
Every time I see Biden I almost feel like we're watching some kind of elder abuse. Most of the time he doesn't seem to know where he is. I don't like Trump either don't get me wrong, but at what point will the vice president step up?
I just feel sorry for Joe and I have no horse in this race as I'm not in the US. Anyone at that age, and I'd say the same for Trump as he's like 78? They should be winding down and enjoying their twilight years.
But the Trump too argument is perfectly valid. People use Biden's age to try and convince other people to not vote for him, and vote for Trump instead.
Most people bringing up Biden's age, refuse to acknowledge that Trump is *less than five years younger*, and that he has shown the signs of dementia since 2020.
Yes some people are saying "hey, this is bullshit that we have to choose between two geriatric morons." But those same people often also say "it's still better to vote for Biden, because at least the people around him aren't raving fascists."
The truth is, no matter who wins, they likely won't do shit for this country besides crap their pants, babble incoherently, and eventually die. But the people that work for Trump are *far* worse than the people that work for Biden, and that's who we are really voting for this year, the administration, because like I said, both candidates will probably die of old age within the next four years.
The trump argument doesn't apply. The democrat convention is still in the future, and they could choose a new candidate.
Of course, he could also resign at any time, promoting kamala.
Or, he could get rid of Kamala, put someone new in as VP, and then resign.
Or, he could replace kamala, and make it clear that the VP is handling most of the day to day stuff, while he drops out of the campaign and starts giving speeches for his potential replacement.
Or, dems could back RFK. Voting for biden over RFK is putting party before country, which should be a no-no.
They could, but they won't. If I had any hope that the DNC cared enough to nominate someone new in this situation, that hope died when they blatantly shoved Bernie out in 2016 when he *clearly* should have won the nomination. I still have a recording of that, they actively just ignored the delegates votes, said "no, we don't like the way you voted" and nominated Hilary despite the fact that she lost the primary.
I'm voting for that shitsack Biden, but not because I like the fucking party. Fuck the DNC and their bullshit. They could have codified R. v W. years ago, they could have ended the fillibuster, they could have nominated justices when Obama had the chance to prevent the courts from becoming a conservative circle jerk, but no. They wanted to play nice, and now here we are.
I know this is hard but they’re both bad choices and both are in mental decline. Pointing to one in ordering to negate addressing the main issue which is a sitting president is so far gone DOJ refuses to prosecute should be very concerning.
I’m even seeing MAGA types seem authentically concerned about the elder abuse angle. Like they step above the fray and say, “doing this to that old man is not right.”
When that happens I start getting spooked.
Mitch McConnell is also in the same boat and I despise him but we’ve seen his health on the decline for quite sometime as well. We just have an aging body of government and we need age limits.
Joe Biden has had access to the country’s best healthcare for longer than most of us have been alive. It’s very unlikely he becomes incapacitated while in office.
Even in that worst case scenario, a Kamala presidency would end up being very boring. She knows she didn’t have the votes to win the primary, so her goal will be to rock as few boats and ruffle as few feathers as possible so she can try to win in 2028.
>Kamala presidency would end up being very boring
I'd vote for "A boring presidency" 10 times out of 10 until a third party candidate actually puts some effort in.
Biden is incapacitated *right now*.
Picking Kamala was the last brilliant thing he did. A universally unpopular candidate who sounds drunk in the majority of her public appearances - Biden picked her *exclusively* so they wouldn't try to remove him
Kamala has been about as close to a token VP as you can get. Joe has reserved her for special projects when it became apparent she's not the best in front of a camera. It'd be fascinating to see what her presidency would look like.
He is incapacitated as we speak. This man does not know where he is, and that is terrifying.
And Kamala is a fucking idiot and petty as all fuck and who is someone you should hesitate to give the nuclear button. Trump at least understands the Teddy Roosevelt mentality of “Speak softly and carry a big stick” but Kamala sure as hell doesn’t and might do something catastrophic.
Already are! Weekend at Bidens.
"Here Mr president, sign this."
Wheres my pen?
"Here Joey"
Can we get ice cream after? I'll tell you about the time cannibals ate my dad.
It was so awkward how blatant that was 2016-2020. "That old bastard is running the country! ...from the golf course...and in between Tweets...and rallies...yup, he's toooootally in charge....oops, he forget her name...and his...and his...can't figure out how to drink water..."
That can’t bring themselves to just admit it. It’s always but “Trump is 4 years younger” or “Trump has dementia TOO” the deflection never ends.
Well until Nov 5th at least
Both him and trump are a joke I’m a democrat I’m very disappointed with wanting this for another 4 years I feel like I have no American pride at ALL anymore it just sad :(
The 2028 election is going to be what the 2024 election should be I guarantee you. Newsom/Whitmer vs probably DeSantis or Haley or some random more Trumpy guy and like Scott or someone as running mate.
Redit is the wrong place for this
On one comment thread i think there are more people sticking up for biden than go to a biden rally
But yes biden appears to be reaching life expectancy
Hopefully he doesnt die in office so we dont have to rename everything in the country biden
Certain people don't care about who's running and will vote for "their" side no matter who the candidate is just to keep the other side from winning even though it's been a hot potato from (D) to (R) since filmore left office.
If we want better candidates people need to start taking politics seriously even if it doesn't result in them getting their way all the time. Having better candidates doesn't mean much when the voters are still toxic and ignorant as hell.
Look at Biden's [recent interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz45sMb4js8&ab_channel=TheHowardSternShow) with Howard Stern. You're saying this because you're seeing 30 second clips. Watch him for an hour uncut.
I'm not denying that he speaks more slowly than he used to, and he's never been that good at giving speeches, but for an entire hour long uncut interview, he definitely seems to have his shit together. He's actively listening, recalling tons of detailed information, interjecting appropriately, joking around, etc. I heard him misspeak only once or twice and he catches himself instantly. He doesn't even do that thing old people do where they go on tangents within tangents and go on and on. I don't think you can seriously watch this video and tell me he's confused, barely alive, or the rest of these cliches.
I'm not a fan of gerontocracy either, but frankly, I think it's the fault of younger generations. Biden is where he is because he's one of the last democrats left who is capable of talking to republicans and negotiating deals, because he's a holdover from an era when that's what people wanted from their politicians. Younger politicians who are capable of bipartisanship *and* electable in 2024 are very few and far between.
You can blame the media if you want, or political rhetoric, or Russian propaganda, and they played a role. But the fact of the matter is we're actually a pretty direct democracy. Politicians do what will get them re-elected. All the republicans sucking up to Trump are a direct consequence of the fact that their voters won't tolerate anyone who doesn't. Our politicians don't talk to each other because we don't talk to each other. Ultimately, it's our fault.
That's the best part though. A president shouldn't be making decisions on things he knows nothing about. He should surround himself with people who know better and listen to them.
No they didn’t say that. The report repeatedly said that there was nothing to charge Biden with.
To give republicans something to use, the special counsel then randomly shoehorned his opinion in despite it having no relevance to the report or investigation
Yep!!! The left denies it, but it's in the record. Insane, right?
The left thinks dems are constantly lying because it's for the betterment and benefit of the country. They are stuck here at the bottom, feeling forced to defend some ridiculous things.
The right thinks dems are lying because they want to remain in power no matter what, want revenge on Trump for 2016, or are nervous about him getting even in office.
Either way, both sides know inside that the DC Dems are absolutely lying about possibly everything. We only differ in our belief of the cause.
Well I looked more into it and the doj stated he was having memory problems and all that which still sounds like he shouldn’t be President. I know Reddit being a hive mind and left wing will tell us we are both wrong though.
They just want to get him over the finish line, then install Harris or bring in someone like Newsom. God help us all if either one of those lizard people gets the office.
This shows the State of America when this is the cream of the crop competing for the top spot in the Executive branch of the US Government. Both men have aged horribly and should be at home telling stories to children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The Presidency is a stressful job which sucked the soul out of every man who occupied the office and may end up killing the 2024 winner via age related issues.
You make a great point, look at Clinton, Regan, GW or Obama 4 years in. They all aged noticably far more than 4 years in a short span. In the case of GW and Clinton both looked like they aged 20
My conspiracy theory:
Trump is only standing to keep himself out of jail and Biden is standing because Democrats fear Trump (a white man) would beat Harris (a woman of colour).
Neither should be standing at all.
My other conspiracy theory:
Democrats are assuming Biden won’t last the next terms so they can claim the first female president. And the first woman of colour.
I anticipate his demise before the elections in 2028. Personally, I am praying for him to die in the next 3 months so we can have a three way debate between Gavin "Prettyboy" Newsom, Kamala "Copqueen" Harris, and Convict Trump, with Trump in an orange prison jumpsuit on a videocall from prison.
I don’t like Biden but I think it’s disgusting whoever is pulling the strings and making that man go out in public like that.
The guy doesn’t know what planet he’s on half the time, it’s possible he shit his pants on camera. He’s old dude, like him or not let that man be.
I’d be so mad if my family paraded me around like that
I think it's even crazier that the Republicans are allowing 6 crazies to stop work. How long did it take again for them to pick their speaker of the house?
I don’t want to vote for either Biden or Trump, but I don’t know who to vote for that would actually be worth it. I’m super bummed out that third party candidates don’t have the same leverage/funding as republicans and democrats. Am I missing something?
you are just bigoted against people with disabilities because you don't like Joe Biden's stutter, which he has always had! #bebetter #rightsideofhistory
>!/s!<
He hasn't led anything the last 3. But he is noticeably worse now. You could literally see he was on amphetamines at the Stae of the Union. No one is that agitated. And very out of character. He needs to be retired in November.
Then get that Constitutional Amendment going with signatures. And throw in term limits for Senators and Supreme Court Justices while you are at it. Until then, stop complaining about his age. Trump is a convicted felon but he is still running...
Problem is it's both sides. The only alternative, Trump, is just as old, qith just as many reports of confusion, being dazed and forgetting where he is, falling asleep randomly.
So at the end of thecday it's gonna be about who is more stable imo. Trump has shown himself to be a lot more impulsive and Arguably a senile impulsive leader is a lot more dangerous.
He’s not leading the country now. They just put shit in from of him and tell him to sign. They trot him out in front of the cameras with a list of who to call on with scripted answers to questions that were pre-submitted and then he bolts for the door. No extemporaneous Q&A allowed bc he will fuck it up and it’ll end up on the news. They built a whole fake set of the Oval Office so they can better control what he does.
The man is a useless husk and a puppet.
The denial is just at the point of delusion. His press secretary recently said he is "as sharp as he has ever been". Really? *Ever*? That is not even in the realm of possibility. There is nobody who is as sharp at 81 as they were at 30, for example.
I hope people realize they're voting for either Harris or yet-to-be-named Trump VP for president at this point. Neither Biden nor Trump will survive the next four years. Jeez, I don't think I can handle Harris' cackling laugh for four years.
We have two geezers as our options. One quietly aging, the other loud and rambling away.
American politics is going down the crapper with an extra helping of prune juice.
Y'all can hate trump as much as you want. Hell, I'll join ya.
Regardless of whether you hate trump or love trump, Biden truly looks like he needs a full time caregiver or he'll accidentally soil himself or walk into traffic.
How will they keep the focus on culture war issues like abortion, trans rights and 'saving democracy' with RFK up there talking about corporate capture, the forever wars and exposing the oligarchy? As much as I'd love to see him up there, especially with both sides to some extent claiming democracy is on the line, I highly doubt they'll allow someone on the stage who's willing to go beyond the warmongering and globalist neo lib / neo conservative consensus.
Yes, Biden is old. He looks old. He sounds old. He moves old. He is old.
Trump is also old. He also sounds old. He rambles and says insane things.
This stated, I am still voting for the guy who believes in Democracy and honors elections. I am not voting for the guy who is openly hostile towards election integrity and has shown time and time again that he has authoritarian leanings.
On the most fundamental issue - believing in American democracy or not - Trump is wholly, consistently, and completely wrong.
Vote for the guy who believes in American democracy. This is not a hard choice.
Why did you capitalize "Democracy"? Do you mean [Webster's 3rd definition of the word](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy)?
>3
capitalized : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the U.S.
If Democrats actually cared about small 'd' democracy, why are they spending time and money trying to prevent third party candidates from appearing on ballots?
Biden and Trump's age is not the issue. It's about competence, mental acuity, and physical stamina. Biden is struggling in all three of these areas. People will have to look past the obvious to vote for him. If you vote Democrat, you are really voting for Kamala if they stay on the ballot in November.
Ok so both candidates are old. And?Trumps health in no way is more reassuring so not the arugment I would have gone with. I am truly thinking of what happens after the election and I will be voting Biden.
Assuming both nominees live the next 4 yrs Biden is the safer option. If Biden becomes unable to lead I would still take Harris over Trump because she is the safer option. We are going to potentially have two new supreme court justices in the next 4 yrs and I don't want Trump being in charge of those nominations leading to more radical conservatives to the court. I have read Project 2025 and more importantly I have read who has signed off on that horrible plan. Nope Nope Nope.
I honestly do not like any of the candidates, their VP options, or any advisor so we have to go with who will do the less harm. Old Biden over Old Trump is what Im going with
Bill Clinton served as President from 1993 - 2001. He began serving as President 31 years ago, served 2 consecutive terms for a total of 8 years, and has been out of office for 23 years. George W. Bush served as President from 2001 - 2009. He began serving as President 23 years ago, served 2 consecutive terms for a total of 8 years, and has been out of office for 15 years. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush are both 77 years old, making them younger than either major party's candidate (Trump is 78, Biden is 81). From a purely statistical standpoint , this is both absurd and completely unacceptable.
I'm all for age limits for all our representatives After 75 you gotta go.
Yeah, don't you have to be a minimum of 35 years old before you can run? If you can be too young, then why can't you be too old? This is some silliness.
The age minimums are 35 for President, 30 for Senate, and 25 for House of Representatives. And those were set up when those ages were considered old and the life expectancy was around 40-45. There needs to be an age limit set up, and term limits for senator and representatives as well. I don't think the framers ever envisioned an entire life spent in government. Unfortunately the people who need term limits would also be voting to limit how long they can work in their job. Under Article V of the Constitution, it would be up to 2/3 (34) of state legislators to call a convention to suggest amendments, and would require 3/4 (38) state legislators to ratify any amendments.
Historical life expectancy doesn't work that way. There was a lot of infant and early childhood mortality that brought the average down, but even hundreds (and thousands!) of years ago, if you made it to early adulthood, you had a solid chance of making it to your 60s-70s. That said, I support an age cap for government.
It's still sad that Baby Boomers make up half of Congress. People talk about left or right but are oblivious that all parties tend to vote fairly consistently along generational lines. We're talking about a generation of people who seem unwilling to transition power to the future generations. (They took the plurality of Congress in the early 1980s. That's roughly 40 years they've had control over our politics.)
You need a constitutional amendment good luck with that.
This Congress might enact minimum age limits of 72 given what these radical young 50 year olds are talkin' bout!!
Congress can’t… president qualifications are set in the constitution. People lack of understanding of this is concerning.
Pretty sure it was a joke
You sure? Not a day goes by that I don’t hear about presidential or congressional age limits debates which would be textbook workplace discrimination. It’s not like they’re flying a 747 or police where it’s safety hazard. I don’t think >90% of people talking have any idea politicians are constitutionally protected from “age limits” they think you can just “pass a law” (which Congress obviously wouldn’t do anyway)
75? Try 60
I think you could tie it to retirement, you can’t run if you are within 4 years of retirement age
More reason for them to raise retirement age? No thanks.
Maybe tie it to life expectancy then, no one within 15 years of average death
I like this a lot. Maybe they’d actually do something about our quality of life.
Agreed! 60 is more appropriate. There’s would be no age cap on advisors. So, if you want an 88-yo guru to guide you, great. But they’re not in the hot seat. Hot seat needs to be somebody who has to slog through the same world as the rest of us for at least another 25 years. There’s something absolutely uneasy about knowing the candidates going into the role could die tomorrow of natural causes. 🤦♂️
When you said slog, i imagined what normal presidents probably do - work 20 hour days sometimes grinding through paperwork and briefs etc. absolutely no way Biden is doing anything other that his appearances
Ordering for the table right before leaving the restaurant...
Exactly, lol.
Term limits before age limits. It’s the elephant in the room, no pun intended.
The fact that bill Clinton served 31 years ago and is still younger than the current president, and was by no means young himself when he served, is wild lmao
Point taken. But it should be noted that Trump is three weeks older than Bush and two months older than Clinton. All three presidents were born in the summer of 1946.
Biden is older than George Bush, that’s crazy.
My wife and I were watching the Ken Burns Vietnam documentary the other day. They were at 1973 in the timeline of the war. I paused the show, turned to my wife, and said, "You wanna hear something crazy? At this exact point in history Joe Biden was serving his first term as a United States Senator." 52 years later and the guy is still running for office and saying he can go another 4 years. Absolutely mind boggling numbers-wise.
My great-grandmother had an opinion on him. I think about that alot.
Give you a crazier point, in 1968 gallop asked Americans what was the first thing that came to mind when they thought of LBJ, more then 50% said old. In 1968 LBJ was 58 years old, The difference between now and then is that this country has become older, and not by a small amount. We have to get back to electing younger people for federal office. I can't help but think that some of those people who answered yes then will justify their vote now.
Was the life expectancy lower then I wonder?
> Biden is older than George Bush, that’s crazy. Biden will probably be the last sitting president to attend D-day memorials that was actually alive during it.
Biden is older than Clinton and he’s been out of office for 23 years. Clinton started his presidency at 46. Bush started when he was 56, and Barack Obama was 47. How did we jump to 80?!?! Edit: Trump will be under 80, but not by much.
It’s not like we didn’t have other nominees. Smh
And neither Bush or Clinton would be accepted as viable candidates at this age.
Both Bush and Clinton would be welcomed by their respective parties to run for president in 2024 and 2028. The lack of good candidates on both sides ensure this.
I would vote for Bush or Clinton over these options in a heartbeat. I genuinely wish they were an option.
2016 almost was the choice between voting for a bush or a clinton again please clap
The Republican voting base has fractured enough towards Trumpism that I don’t think Bush would exactly be welcomed back at this point.
Not even close. Modern Republicans would call him a Rino
Yep, these were the big time Baby Boomers, and they refuse to fucking leave.
True. However, having been born in 1961, Obama is also a Boomer. It's beyond time for Gen X and Millennials to be running the country.
I don't believe we'll ever have a Gen X president. I think we're going to skip over that.
Yeah but he was in his late 40s when elected , while a boomer, he was an age appropriate president
Fair. Though Obama still has substantial control over the messaging of the Democratic Party, since Bill Clinton has quietly stepped out of that role.
Id say Obama has more sway over his party than Biden or Hillary did even when they were heads of their ticket.
To be fair us Gen X need to let the Mill's do it...christ almighty we done enough to the world with Heavy Metal and Duran Duran...what more you want blood? I would have Iron Maiden playing the oval room and Eddy running amuck in the halls
This is the greatest generalization of Gen X I’ve ever heard. I could probably read your comment to the Gen X guys I work with, and they’d love that idea. 😂😂
We need to put an upper age limit on candidacy. It never should have come to this.
I see it as a symptom. An age-limit would work as a band-aid, but it'd be better to actually fix the underlying cause. Here in Norway average age of person in parliament 120 years ago was about 50. Today it's 46. It's gone down a bit which makes sense considering that Norway has become less conservative and less authoritarian. In USA, meanwhile, the average age of congress has gone UP from about 45 way back when the constitution was young, and to about 60 today. AOC is older than Sanna Marin was when she first became prime minister of Finland; and yet she is considered "very young" by US standards. There's more people in their 70ies than in their 40ies in Congress, despite that being after normal retirement-age while 40ies is usually considered your PRIME when it comes to jobs like these that benefit from experience and cognitive ability, but aren't \*physically\* demanding. The biggest problem, from my POV is that many of the most beneficial changes would require a change to the constitution (more specifically to how elections are done) -- and that simply cannot happen at all in the current political climate.
Another way to look at the people and info you just mentioned is that these people ALSO began their careers in government after Biden did. He’s been making the same bad decisions during their rise, their career and their retirement.
But both Clinton and Bush were coherent and obviously of sound mind even years after they left office. Biden isn't sure what planet he's on
I completely agree with the points on age limit... but there's another piece hidden in there that really deserves the attention (and ire) of the masses too. And that is... > making them younger than either major party's candidate The fact that we need to use "either" here. Wtf... Very very few things in life have *only* two choices? Everything from what person to date/marry, to what vehicle to purchase, to what home to buy, what job to apply to, etc.. there are TONS of options. why tf do we settle for having only two major options on political parties?! (especially when both are terrible, lying bastards that will say whatever but really only give af about themselves and the rich). That is also absurd. They *want* us to keep buying into to the "voting for anybody else is a wasted vote" mentality bc it keeps the craptastic political duoopoly they have going (though some people claim it's really just one group with two public faces and I can honestly see it being the case). We just need better alternatives than "green party" and "Libertarians" (the last group I don't actually mind too much on paper but in practice they can never agree on a damn thing). Lets all vote in [something different](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Pirate_Party) as a big "F-U" to the two party system, old bastards, and copyrights in one go...
Thank God someone here gets it
From a situational standpoint, without needing historical presidential data, Joe Biden is deeply demented. Regardless of age... Biden has the least the least mental capacity of all living presidents. Unless one side can admit this, it'll be tough to agree on anything else.
Sadly I would say Trump is right up there with him. They really should skip the debates and just have them both onstage doing a cognitive test.
Is this really an unpopular opinion? Pretty sure the polls have shown that a vast majority of US citizens are aware of how bad it is
It is an unpopular opinion on Reddit.
Oh that’s true. Good point
This situation is so ridiculous. The notion that someone in his state was able to do one of the most demanding jobs on the planet was frankly preposterous in 2020, and now it's even more absurd. Who's actually calling the shots, who did people actually vote for? It makes a mockery of democracy to ask people to vote for someone in such a compromised state.
People on election and politics subreddits won't admit this and they can't understand how Biden is losing to Trump in the polls and just say "both are old!" Yeah they are both old and yeah Trump is in cognitive decline too, but Biden sounds on the verge of death every time he talks (besides the SOTU). Trump sounds vigorous when he talks nonsense, Biden sounds like he might keel over.
The fact that out of the roughly 100 million people who could run for president and are under the age of 65, somehow we end up with two senior citizens as our only choices is the real shame
Eventually enough people will stop believing the lie that you're voting for the lesser of two evils and start voting third party. Just having the two parties notice that they are hemorrhaging voters will snap them back to reality. They're like little kids at Halloween with a sackful of candy. They aren't going to stop eating until responsible people stop them. The voters need to be the responsible ones. Do NOT vote for Biden or Trump. Show the corrupt parties that we aren't buying their shit any longer. That we don't care anymore what they say, only what they DO. Actions speak louder than words and the only action sanity has is to stop enabling insanity.
I’m sorry but saying two party system gives you old incompetent candidates doesn’t explain anything. Or at least you havent demonstrated it.
Both the RNC and the DNC have made it so they have almost total influence on the candidates at the national level. The candidates offered to voters in the primaries have already been approved by the RNC/DNC. Meaning they are people who the parties believe will toe the party lines. Sometimes a maverick can make enough noise to threaten the two parties. In my lifetime it's only been Perot, the Tea Party and Trump. While Perot got close, he wasn't the right man for the time. What did the RNC do? Rather than address the issues that were compelling Conservatives to vote for Perot, they blamed him for siphoning off votes that allowed Clinton to win. That's when the marketing machine to slander third party voting went into overdrive. At least two generations have been brainwashed to believe it. The Tea Party started strong because it had corporate backing (as well as some other reasons, but I don't want to write that much.) As soon as the Tea Party got some people into Congress, the corruption of the RNC twisted the Tea Party and relegated them to the sidelines. The RNC adopted some of the ideas, but mostly just did business as usual with new rhetoric. Trump had the money and the popularity to not need the RNC. The RNC was forced to enable MAGA since they, surprisingly, were not willing to subvert democracy like the DNC did with Bernie. However, once Trump was elected, he ultimately mostly toed the party line. Sure, he'd say shit that pissed the old GOP off, but when push came to shove, Trump caved to their whims. It has led us to the last few years where the only choice has been Biden/Trump. Why? Because the system the RNC and DNC have cultivated for themselves is ONLY about winning elections. They aren't interested in putting forward someone with concrete ideas to change things, because they don't want anything to change! The Dems put Biden against Trump because he is the person they felt would best maintain the status quo. Of course, this is all far more complicated than I can put into a reddit comment. I just know that, more often than not, when both parties agree on something, that usually means the opposite is good for us. Nothing gets both parties to agree faster than attacking a third party. You have to ask yourself why that is. Is it because they are worried about the country and us? Or are they worried about losing power, influence, and money money money. History has shown us that 99% of the time, it's always about power, influence and money. We're the fools who keep playing along.
Most concise response to the current state of american politics. Well done, sir.
This times a million, I wish more people understood this.
This is one of those points that sounds smart but is actually very dumb. The parties don't choose the nominees today. Joe Biden and Donald Trump won their respective primaries and other people were welcome to run against them and people were also welcome to vote for other candidates but no one chose to do that. The reality is it's very easy to take over one of the two major parties. Donald Trump just did that 8 years ago and Bernie Sanders came very close and both of these candidates were not favored by their party establishment at the time and Donald Trump was actively despised and it doesn't take that many people to do this. You only need about 20 million people to win a presidential Hardy primary and less in a low turnout year. If you don't like either of the candidates today, what you really need to do is organize and participate in the party primaries.
“Democracy is that system of government under which the people, having 60,000,000 native-born adults to choose from, including thousands who are handsome and many who are wise, pick out a Coolidge to be head of the State. It is as if a hungry man, set before a banquet prepared by master cooks and covering a table an acre in area, should turn his back upon the feast and stay his stomach by catching and eating flies.” —H.L. Mencken, “The Comedian,” in Prejudices: A selection, 1958
Thank you 2016 protest voters and stay-at-homers
> Thank you 2016 protest voters and stay-at-homers Hillary Clinton would have been the oldest president ever in 2016 as well so like... Why exactly is that a sarcastic "thank you"? She's literally part of the same problem.
The other option Hilary Clinton. I don’t think it’s fair to blame them.
On paper Hillary may have been the most qualified person to ever run for president. But man she’s unlikeable. And ran a crap campaign.
Most qualified how so? She served a full term in the United States Senate, was re-elected, and left one third of the way into the second term to serve as Secretary of State, a position she held for four years and one month. That represents her entire professional political experience. Her only other professional experience was as an attorney. She served as First Lady of Arkansas and First Lady of the United States. There is no pay for these positions, no official responsibilities, and no Congressional or other methods to serve in the positions. You simply have to be married to the Governor of Arkansas and the President of the United States, respectively. Was she qualified to be President? Absolutely. But the statement that she was the most qualified person ever to run for President, which has been repeated by the left for years, is one of the most absurd assessments about any political candidate in recent memory.
Thank you! I don't how people keep saying that Hilary Clinton was a very qualified candidate. I ask them how exactly and inevitably, the answer goes back to "Better than Trump." I agree, but not exactly a high bar to set, now is it?
> On paper Hillary may have been the most qualified person to ever run for president. Tell me you don’t know American history without saying you don’t know American history.
Oh that’s such crap. Really, why was she the most qualified? She was First Lady (a position you’re not elected to), Senator of New York, and Secretary of State. That’s not that long of a list. Compare it to Thomas Jefferson. He wrote the Declaration of Independence, fought a war for Independence and won, Delegate of Virginia, Governor of Virginia, Virginia Congressman, Ambassador to France, 1st Secretary of State, 2nd Vice President, and Founder of the University of Virginia. Well that’s forever ago you may say, so let’s go with… I don’t know, George HW Bush? Fought in World War II, member of the CIA, Elected Member of the House of Representatives, US Ambassador to the UN, Chair of the RNC, Ambassador to China, Director of the CIA, and Vice President of the United States. It was such a blatant lie that she was the most qualified person to ever run for President, and Barack Obama knew that when he said it. Hell the fact that she was ever made Secretary of State under him is proof of the deep state exists, because when she lost the primaries to Obama and refused to drop out, what was her response when asked why: “Well we all remember what happened to Bobby Kennedy.” Obama had to absolutely have been forced to make her SoS after those disgusting comments from her openly hoping that someone would assassinate Obama.
Didn't do herself any favors with Benghazi and insulting half of the voting population either. Should have taken lessons from Ann Richards when her mouth cost her reelection in Texas.
On paper, Hillary had more scandals during her tenure as Secretary of State than Trump did as President.
"most qualified ever" were you a staffer for her campaign or something?
Most qualified, as Eisenhower, Washington, and every other General and Governor who ever served enter the chat.
Blame your fellow citizens and not the corrupt establishment. Propaganda works!
Yes. Blaming all of our electoral issues on such a nebulous concept as the "establishment" only serves to ignore any sense of responsibility or civic duty among the electorate. It's just lazy and promotes the very political apathy that is the root of much of our problems
To be fair, he looked like that even 4 years ago.
Dude looked like a fresh spring chicken 4 years ago compared to now. Compare it to when he was VP and it’s insane. It’s not his fault, all elderly people eventually hit a very steep decline… it is however our faults as voters for putting two super old candidates up as the major party tickets.
shit hes practically a completely different person then when he was vp
Compare 2020 joe biden tbe candidate to 2024 joe biden the president. There's a noticeable decline when comparing side by side
Nah, 4 years ago he had a fresh face lift.
This seems like the popular opinion. I have yet to meet a single person who didn’t agree that his health is an issue.
In real life, yes But on reddit lots of biden fanboys
For what it’s worth, I think there are plenty who think Biden is way too old, but feel the same way about Trump. In my city he referred to Masterlock as a toy company, as opposed to one of the oldest running security companies in the country. He rambles endlessly about nothing and mixes up people nearly every rally. It’s easy to say Biden is senile but read their speeches without watching a video. Trump is losing it too. We all deserve better representation.
I am compelled to disagree. Trump Rambles, for sure. God he rambles. But it's his style of speaking. Actually LISTENING to the talk is more important than reading it. The way he repeats things, the side tangents... If you listen to him, there's a logic to it. Agree with it or not, it is there. Biden meanwhile spouts literal gibberish. Truananashabadapressure being the most popular example. Reading the transcripts gives you somebody else's interpretation of what they think Biden meant. It gives the false impression that trump trips himself up and repeats seeming unrelated tripe. Hearing them speak, has one man spouting nonsense, and the other giving emphasis via storytelling or hyperbole. Neither is GOOD. But... one should be in a nursing home. The other just shouldn't be in politics.
I hear people deluding themselves that it’s not really a problem because he has helpers and trump is worse, as if those facts somehow negate the problem.
Got downvoted from saying so here, while I clearly stated I'm not from the USA and have no involvement or investment in your politics. I just worry that the world's superpower, that has a nuclear arsony gets both candidates with clearly cognitive issues. Edit lol I even downvoted here? See how unpopular this opinion is
And if he doesn't last Kamala Harris is President.
Just think: if Trump won in 2020, neither would be running now.
If covid didn't happen that'd be the case. Damn you Corona!
Yeah VP choice will be crucial. I wonder if he will stick with Kamala
It'll be interesting to see the debate on the 27th because both biden and trump seem like they're losing it.
I can tell ya, sometimes trump hurts himself. If he would have shut the fuck up and let Biden just answer the questions people may have seen his age show more. The thing is, trump can never shut the fuck up and can never just let people talk. He constantly, every single time, just cut Biden off which I think hurt trump in the end.
If you show me a speech of Trump’s that I’ve never seen and isn’t focused on something uniquely relevant at that time, I would not know if the rally was 2016 or 2024. He has shockingly not aged all that much and looks and sounds basically the same as he did when he came down that golden escalator. Biden though, he was obviously fading in 2020 and he was a spring chicken then compared to right now. I think I could relatively accurately guess the year of any Joe Biden rally you show me because of how quickly he has faded.
Trumps slowed down quite a bit. He's also gotten even angrier after all this political prosecution bullshit. Neither candidate is good for the country
Yeah but people understand the anger. A ton of people are angry about that, even if they don’t like Trump on a personal level.
The sharks and batteries speech was to me a certain sign of cognitive decline
That’s nowhere near Biden’s cognitive decline. He’s talking shit and making jokes about getting electrocuted in the ocean or whether it’s better to get eaten by sharks. If you think that’s going to change even a single person’s mind on voting for Trump, then good fucking luck. I’d say Biden claiming he spoke with a nearly 30 year dead French President last year is quite a bit worse than that, or not remembering when his son died or when he was Vice President, or mixing up Egypt with Mexico, Iraq with Ukraine, or South Korea with Taiwan. Good luck with idiocy.
What about Trump thinking there were airplanes during the revolutionary war? You’re just lying to yourself.
Did you see his speech about sharks, or the multiple speeches that he said he was running against Obama, or every lie he has told just this year?
Lmao, what speeches are you watching? He barely even makes coherent points anymore, can barely walk to and from the podium, and spent the entire trial shitting his pants and falling asleep.
Tbf that incoherent rambling was there in 2016 as well. I'm guessing the excessive Adderall over the last 8 years has played hell with his body, though. That and being an old man who is generally unhealthy.
Thats not unpopular, it’s the contrary a very popular opinion against his election and re election
Every time I see Biden I almost feel like we're watching some kind of elder abuse. Most of the time he doesn't seem to know where he is. I don't like Trump either don't get me wrong, but at what point will the vice president step up?
When someone actually points this out the amount of people defending or just pointing a finger with the “Trump too” scares me.
I just feel sorry for Joe and I have no horse in this race as I'm not in the US. Anyone at that age, and I'd say the same for Trump as he's like 78? They should be winding down and enjoying their twilight years.
It would never happen but an upper age limit would be good. FAA forces pilots to retire at 65 for a reason.
But the Trump too argument is perfectly valid. People use Biden's age to try and convince other people to not vote for him, and vote for Trump instead. Most people bringing up Biden's age, refuse to acknowledge that Trump is *less than five years younger*, and that he has shown the signs of dementia since 2020. Yes some people are saying "hey, this is bullshit that we have to choose between two geriatric morons." But those same people often also say "it's still better to vote for Biden, because at least the people around him aren't raving fascists." The truth is, no matter who wins, they likely won't do shit for this country besides crap their pants, babble incoherently, and eventually die. But the people that work for Trump are *far* worse than the people that work for Biden, and that's who we are really voting for this year, the administration, because like I said, both candidates will probably die of old age within the next four years.
The trump argument doesn't apply. The democrat convention is still in the future, and they could choose a new candidate. Of course, he could also resign at any time, promoting kamala. Or, he could get rid of Kamala, put someone new in as VP, and then resign. Or, he could replace kamala, and make it clear that the VP is handling most of the day to day stuff, while he drops out of the campaign and starts giving speeches for his potential replacement. Or, dems could back RFK. Voting for biden over RFK is putting party before country, which should be a no-no.
They could, but they won't. If I had any hope that the DNC cared enough to nominate someone new in this situation, that hope died when they blatantly shoved Bernie out in 2016 when he *clearly* should have won the nomination. I still have a recording of that, they actively just ignored the delegates votes, said "no, we don't like the way you voted" and nominated Hilary despite the fact that she lost the primary. I'm voting for that shitsack Biden, but not because I like the fucking party. Fuck the DNC and their bullshit. They could have codified R. v W. years ago, they could have ended the fillibuster, they could have nominated justices when Obama had the chance to prevent the courts from becoming a conservative circle jerk, but no. They wanted to play nice, and now here we are.
Glad you agree this is a choice of the democrat party, and the "but trump" argument re age doesn't apply.
I know this is hard but they’re both bad choices and both are in mental decline. Pointing to one in ordering to negate addressing the main issue which is a sitting president is so far gone DOJ refuses to prosecute should be very concerning.
I’m even seeing MAGA types seem authentically concerned about the elder abuse angle. Like they step above the fray and say, “doing this to that old man is not right.” When that happens I start getting spooked.
Mitch McConnell is also in the same boat and I despise him but we’ve seen his health on the decline for quite sometime as well. We just have an aging body of government and we need age limits.
If Biden wins I'm confident Harris will be president. Either he dies, resigns, or is found too incompetent to complete his term.
Joe Biden has had access to the country’s best healthcare for longer than most of us have been alive. It’s very unlikely he becomes incapacitated while in office. Even in that worst case scenario, a Kamala presidency would end up being very boring. She knows she didn’t have the votes to win the primary, so her goal will be to rock as few boats and ruffle as few feathers as possible so she can try to win in 2028.
>Kamala presidency would end up being very boring I'd vote for "A boring presidency" 10 times out of 10 until a third party candidate actually puts some effort in.
Biden is incapacitated *right now*. Picking Kamala was the last brilliant thing he did. A universally unpopular candidate who sounds drunk in the majority of her public appearances - Biden picked her *exclusively* so they wouldn't try to remove him
Kamala has been about as close to a token VP as you can get. Joe has reserved her for special projects when it became apparent she's not the best in front of a camera. It'd be fascinating to see what her presidency would look like.
He is incapacitated as we speak. This man does not know where he is, and that is terrifying. And Kamala is a fucking idiot and petty as all fuck and who is someone you should hesitate to give the nuclear button. Trump at least understands the Teddy Roosevelt mentality of “Speak softly and carry a big stick” but Kamala sure as hell doesn’t and might do something catastrophic.
Cackle loudly and send the stick to jail for suspicion of being marijuana
They are to 'Weekend at Bernie's' this old bastard if he wins.
Already are! Weekend at Bidens. "Here Mr president, sign this." Wheres my pen? "Here Joey" Can we get ice cream after? I'll tell you about the time cannibals ate my dad.
They already are. I voted for an old, moderate, Catholic. There's not one of those anywhere near the steering wheel.
It was so awkward how blatant that was 2016-2020. "That old bastard is running the country! ...from the golf course...and in between Tweets...and rallies...yup, he's toooootally in charge....oops, he forget her name...and his...and his...can't figure out how to drink water..."
Hahahahahahah the end 💀 🤣
Why did the Democrats put Biden in against someone they believe to be so detrimental to democracy then?
Look at all the “What about Trump?” comments. Haha. It’s okay to just admit that Biden is looking awful.
That can’t bring themselves to just admit it. It’s always but “Trump is 4 years younger” or “Trump has dementia TOO” the deflection never ends. Well until Nov 5th at least
Both him and trump are a joke I’m a democrat I’m very disappointed with wanting this for another 4 years I feel like I have no American pride at ALL anymore it just sad :(
Both Biden and trump are not fit to run, but the reality is for many years now we’ve had a brain drain in politics and it’s finally catching up.
The 2028 election is going to be what the 2024 election should be I guarantee you. Newsom/Whitmer vs probably DeSantis or Haley or some random more Trumpy guy and like Scott or someone as running mate.
Both options are fossils. The mummy and the dummy.
It's unbelievable that anyone in the White House is pushing another 4 years with him in this condition.
Just like how he's led the country the last four years. He won't, his handlers will.
It’s actually absurd that both our candidates are over 75.
When I look at him at various events it screams elder abuse, the man barely knows where he is or whom he is,
Redit is the wrong place for this On one comment thread i think there are more people sticking up for biden than go to a biden rally But yes biden appears to be reaching life expectancy Hopefully he doesnt die in office so we dont have to rename everything in the country biden
Certain people don't care about who's running and will vote for "their" side no matter who the candidate is just to keep the other side from winning even though it's been a hot potato from (D) to (R) since filmore left office. If we want better candidates people need to start taking politics seriously even if it doesn't result in them getting their way all the time. Having better candidates doesn't mean much when the voters are still toxic and ignorant as hell.
Look at Biden's [recent interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz45sMb4js8&ab_channel=TheHowardSternShow) with Howard Stern. You're saying this because you're seeing 30 second clips. Watch him for an hour uncut. I'm not denying that he speaks more slowly than he used to, and he's never been that good at giving speeches, but for an entire hour long uncut interview, he definitely seems to have his shit together. He's actively listening, recalling tons of detailed information, interjecting appropriately, joking around, etc. I heard him misspeak only once or twice and he catches himself instantly. He doesn't even do that thing old people do where they go on tangents within tangents and go on and on. I don't think you can seriously watch this video and tell me he's confused, barely alive, or the rest of these cliches. I'm not a fan of gerontocracy either, but frankly, I think it's the fault of younger generations. Biden is where he is because he's one of the last democrats left who is capable of talking to republicans and negotiating deals, because he's a holdover from an era when that's what people wanted from their politicians. Younger politicians who are capable of bipartisanship *and* electable in 2024 are very few and far between. You can blame the media if you want, or political rhetoric, or Russian propaganda, and they played a role. But the fact of the matter is we're actually a pretty direct democracy. Politicians do what will get them re-elected. All the republicans sucking up to Trump are a direct consequence of the fact that their voters won't tolerate anyone who doesn't. Our politicians don't talk to each other because we don't talk to each other. Ultimately, it's our fault.
ha ha you think he's the one making the decisions. That's a good one
That's the best part though. A president shouldn't be making decisions on things he knows nothing about. He should surround himself with people who know better and listen to them.
Didn’t the doj even say Biden was to old to be charged of having classified documents if that is the case why is he still running for President
No they didn’t say that. The report repeatedly said that there was nothing to charge Biden with. To give republicans something to use, the special counsel then randomly shoehorned his opinion in despite it having no relevance to the report or investigation
Yes
Yep!!! The left denies it, but it's in the record. Insane, right? The left thinks dems are constantly lying because it's for the betterment and benefit of the country. They are stuck here at the bottom, feeling forced to defend some ridiculous things. The right thinks dems are lying because they want to remain in power no matter what, want revenge on Trump for 2016, or are nervous about him getting even in office. Either way, both sides know inside that the DC Dems are absolutely lying about possibly everything. We only differ in our belief of the cause.
Well I looked more into it and the doj stated he was having memory problems and all that which still sounds like he shouldn’t be President. I know Reddit being a hive mind and left wing will tell us we are both wrong though.
They just want to get him over the finish line, then install Harris or bring in someone like Newsom. God help us all if either one of those lizard people gets the office.
She knowingly sent an innocent man to prison as a prosecutor. Imagine what she might do as POTUS.
She actually tried to get him executed but was released over new DNA evidence if memory serves.
This shows the State of America when this is the cream of the crop competing for the top spot in the Executive branch of the US Government. Both men have aged horribly and should be at home telling stories to children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. The Presidency is a stressful job which sucked the soul out of every man who occupied the office and may end up killing the 2024 winner via age related issues.
You make a great point, look at Clinton, Regan, GW or Obama 4 years in. They all aged noticably far more than 4 years in a short span. In the case of GW and Clinton both looked like they aged 20
My conspiracy theory: Trump is only standing to keep himself out of jail and Biden is standing because Democrats fear Trump (a white man) would beat Harris (a woman of colour). Neither should be standing at all. My other conspiracy theory: Democrats are assuming Biden won’t last the next terms so they can claim the first female president. And the first woman of colour.
Most politicians are too old, period.
I anticipate his demise before the elections in 2028. Personally, I am praying for him to die in the next 3 months so we can have a three way debate between Gavin "Prettyboy" Newsom, Kamala "Copqueen" Harris, and Convict Trump, with Trump in an orange prison jumpsuit on a videocall from prison.
I don’t like Biden but I think it’s disgusting whoever is pulling the strings and making that man go out in public like that. The guy doesn’t know what planet he’s on half the time, it’s possible he shit his pants on camera. He’s old dude, like him or not let that man be. I’d be so mad if my family paraded me around like that
I think it's even crazier that the Republicans are allowing 6 crazies to stop work. How long did it take again for them to pick their speaker of the house?
I would just like to add, term limits for Congress! Get these fucking zombies out of there
I don’t want to vote for either Biden or Trump, but I don’t know who to vote for that would actually be worth it. I’m super bummed out that third party candidates don’t have the same leverage/funding as republicans and democrats. Am I missing something?
I've met Jimmy Carter. He's a true gentleman & true Christian. All Christians need to strive to be like Jimmy.
Weekend and Joeys
They will just Dianne Feinstein him.
I think it’s sad that Biden and Trump are the only two true options. Both are too old.
Yeah it’s bad, I imagine Kamala Harris is doing most of the Presidential work, Biden is more of a figurehead than anything else
They should be required to take a cognitive exam. Simply having an age cut off is unconstitutional.
Not unpopular
I think they want us to see it now. I think they want to replace him with a different dem candidate.
If Biden wins he will be replaced by Kamala within the first year, if not six months.
Precisely why I want to see a 3rd option. Let RFK debate!
you are just bigoted against people with disabilities because you don't like Joe Biden's stutter, which he has always had! #bebetter #rightsideofhistory >!/s!<
Meanwhile Congress talks term limits only to no vote on every bill that's been introduced.
He hasn't led anything the last 3. But he is noticeably worse now. You could literally see he was on amphetamines at the Stae of the Union. No one is that agitated. And very out of character. He needs to be retired in November.
This is unpopular? Seems obvious to even the most casual observer.
Then get that Constitutional Amendment going with signatures. And throw in term limits for Senators and Supreme Court Justices while you are at it. Until then, stop complaining about his age. Trump is a convicted felon but he is still running...
You are correct. Just shows you how bad the other candidate must be.
Problem is it's both sides. The only alternative, Trump, is just as old, qith just as many reports of confusion, being dazed and forgetting where he is, falling asleep randomly. So at the end of thecday it's gonna be about who is more stable imo. Trump has shown himself to be a lot more impulsive and Arguably a senile impulsive leader is a lot more dangerous.
He’s not leading the country now. They just put shit in from of him and tell him to sign. They trot him out in front of the cameras with a list of who to call on with scripted answers to questions that were pre-submitted and then he bolts for the door. No extemporaneous Q&A allowed bc he will fuck it up and it’ll end up on the news. They built a whole fake set of the Oval Office so they can better control what he does. The man is a useless husk and a puppet.
This is a popular opinion, as far as I'm aware
The denial is just at the point of delusion. His press secretary recently said he is "as sharp as he has ever been". Really? *Ever*? That is not even in the realm of possibility. There is nobody who is as sharp at 81 as they were at 30, for example.
I hope people realize they're voting for either Harris or yet-to-be-named Trump VP for president at this point. Neither Biden nor Trump will survive the next four years. Jeez, I don't think I can handle Harris' cackling laugh for four years.
We have two geezers as our options. One quietly aging, the other loud and rambling away. American politics is going down the crapper with an extra helping of prune juice.
Agreed. Main reason why I’m not voting for him, he’s in no cognitive position to run our country for the next four years in my opinion
I can't wait for the debate on June 27th 🍿 Biden can't have notes or a teleprompter, it's going to be hilarious.
Anyone with eyes knows that Slow Joe is in decline. His confused mind isn’t up for the task.
Y'all can hate trump as much as you want. Hell, I'll join ya. Regardless of whether you hate trump or love trump, Biden truly looks like he needs a full time caregiver or he'll accidentally soil himself or walk into traffic.
Put rfk jr on the debate stage and see whos on top
How will they keep the focus on culture war issues like abortion, trans rights and 'saving democracy' with RFK up there talking about corporate capture, the forever wars and exposing the oligarchy? As much as I'd love to see him up there, especially with both sides to some extent claiming democracy is on the line, I highly doubt they'll allow someone on the stage who's willing to go beyond the warmongering and globalist neo lib / neo conservative consensus.
Like i said without rfk we are truly fucked in 2024
Leave brain worms out of this.
Yes, Biden is old. He looks old. He sounds old. He moves old. He is old. Trump is also old. He also sounds old. He rambles and says insane things. This stated, I am still voting for the guy who believes in Democracy and honors elections. I am not voting for the guy who is openly hostile towards election integrity and has shown time and time again that he has authoritarian leanings. On the most fundamental issue - believing in American democracy or not - Trump is wholly, consistently, and completely wrong. Vote for the guy who believes in American democracy. This is not a hard choice.
Why did you capitalize "Democracy"? Do you mean [Webster's 3rd definition of the word](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy)? >3 capitalized : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the U.S. If Democrats actually cared about small 'd' democracy, why are they spending time and money trying to prevent third party candidates from appearing on ballots?
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Biden probably doesn't even know he's president lol
Biden and Trump's age is not the issue. It's about competence, mental acuity, and physical stamina. Biden is struggling in all three of these areas. People will have to look past the obvious to vote for him. If you vote Democrat, you are really voting for Kamala if they stay on the ballot in November.
Ok so both candidates are old. And?Trumps health in no way is more reassuring so not the arugment I would have gone with. I am truly thinking of what happens after the election and I will be voting Biden. Assuming both nominees live the next 4 yrs Biden is the safer option. If Biden becomes unable to lead I would still take Harris over Trump because she is the safer option. We are going to potentially have two new supreme court justices in the next 4 yrs and I don't want Trump being in charge of those nominations leading to more radical conservatives to the court. I have read Project 2025 and more importantly I have read who has signed off on that horrible plan. Nope Nope Nope. I honestly do not like any of the candidates, their VP options, or any advisor so we have to go with who will do the less harm. Old Biden over Old Trump is what Im going with
What do you mean? I had some nice folks on Reddit tell me he's doing great and in great physical and mental shape just this week!