Joe Biden ist just like many octogenariens.....

[KekseKekse]

.....who doesn't realise that he is past his prime and needs to leave it to someone else in the Democratic Party to run for the US presidency. Just like an octogenarian car driver, who insists that they are fit to drive, when everyone around them can see otherwise and it's up to their nearest and dearest to take away their car keys or report them to the DVLA.

Unfortunately, in the case of Joe Biden, he is wilfully refusing to listen to everyone telling him that if he tries for another term against Trump he will lose and give that awful man more power.

Today Biden said in an interview that only if a doctor told him he wasn't capable of standing would he listen. So, just like a lot of elderly drivers whose reflexes and reaction times are seriously on the decline , but won't listen until they have an accident, or worse, kill someone. I just despair!

I’m quite angry with Biden. He actually said before he got elected that he would only serve one term. He has always known even the first time people thought he might be too old. The debate was to try to show he was fine and he should have gone as soon as it happened. Even if the excuse he had a cold was true then he has too bad judgment when he did not decide to postpone.

The Democrats should have taken him at his word and started a full primary with a range of viable candidates. I’m not American so not sure whether that would or could have worked if you had an incumbent saying they were running through the whole thing.

I remember him saying he was one term only so yeah that annoyed me too. I don't even care about his age, if the American public want to vote for him they will if they don't they won't.

I think/hope that his comment about his doctors was paving the way for him to step aside.

Covid would be a bit weak, but if you put an eighty something man in a full body MRI and get the most expensive doctors in America to look at the scan then you will find something that looks a bit like cancer and justifies him stepping down gracefully.

No, she has not responded well as a VP. Let’s leave the race and gender aside. In fact polls are saying Michelle Obama could beat Trump and she is black and a woman. The diversity hire is what got us into this situation here. Kamala Harris just hasn’t got it in her.

About Biden I find it funny people said they are disappointed. Did you really believed him? People think of the now and not of the consequences. This was all discussed and dismissed in 2020.

My dad is the same age and everyone is shocked when they find out his age. He is considered very young and fit for his age. He still walks the dog miles every day and tows the caravan round the UK. But he is clearly not as fit as he thinks, he gets forgetful, he's been scammed a couple of times buying appliances off dodgy websites. When cold callers ring he gets sucked in. He is in no way fit to be working never mind running a nation. And he's the most with it 80 odd year old I know. The situation in the US is ridiculous.

Seems daft that they have a lower age limit for president but not an upper age limit. Old no longer means wise in the way it might have done when life expectancy was much shorter.

It's too late for Biden to step down now.

It's just madness that the US has no upper age limit on who can run for presidency! Given its not exactly a secret that mental acuity declines in old age.

An age limit of 66, meaning the oldest a president can be is 70 would make sense.

My dad is the same age too, before the pandemic he would go on 20 mile bike rides
Now he can barely manage to ,shuffle round the house it's sad to see
He's also noticeably far less alert than he used to be.

It's not too late. Later than we'd like, inconveniently late, but not too late. The reason why the clamour for him to go from the Democrats is so loud is that he can be replaced as candidate at the Democratic National Convention in late August. It's not normal but it's very doable.

Seems neither the democrats or republicans have heard of succession planning.

Are 2 over 70s the best America has or does noone else want to take up the poisoned chalice?

Yes that's the problem. Even if Joe Biden was the most alert, whip-smart 81 year old ever, I wouldn't want to bet the safety of the world and the prosperity of a nation on him staying that way for a long four and a half years. Obviously even a forty year old president can have a heart attack or get cancer, but it's the insidious nature of age-related mental decline that's so worrying.

Ditto Trump at 78 - in fact more so, because he's less likely to listen to advisers, and I trust Dr Jill more than I do Melania.

Yes, and 65 for PM with a 5 year term.

Sure there are outliers in every age cohort, but some younger blood in politics would be a good thing . ( I am 63 so ruling myself out now 😀)

I feel so bloody sorry for Americans right now.
What a choice.
Also don't understand how Dems let it get to this stage, with Biden being so clearly incapable of lasting another 4 years.
Just don't understand it.

Watching him walk up the plane steps, last night on the news, was excruciating . He seems stiffer every week, never mind Health and safety preventing snipers on sloping roof's, what happens when the person you are guarding can't get to the ground quickly in an emergency ?

It’s very normal and expected for people in their 80s to decline rapidly. Why would anyone not predict this to happen for Biden? He’s exceptional only in that he’s also got the unbelievably high added stress of being President of the U.S. you couldn’t make it up! Ridiculous.

Staying on and not picking the most popular deputy he can find is so undemocratic. Trump is terrifying. Don’t give him the election! Covid offers a chance to resign that I really hope Biden will take. Resigning would not dent his record, but staying on doggedly definitely would do.

Yeah but he's their favourite puppet and the next one might not be so amenable and put a stop to all the activism.

Trump is 78 ,its a very real possibility whoever wins the election could die during term .

Does that matter? Then they get shot. That's his call.

We don't put upper age limits on jobs thankfully. That would be agism

The big Hollywood donors (and by talking about activism I assume that they're the ones that concern you, not conventional business) have pulled the plug on donations to Biden.

There is a minimum age for presidential candidates. There really ought to be a maximum as well. It's ridiculous that a man already in his 80s with cognitive decline is seeking a full on, high powered job for the next four years.

Trump has played an absolute blinder in picking J. D. Vance as his running-mate and heir apparent.

Instead of people worrying Trump might somehow try to stay on after 2028 despite the two term limit, now they’ll welcome the prospect of Vance as a 43 year old president. Possibly sooner, if anything happens to Trump.

He’ll be an exciting and attractive candidate for many Americans, with a coherent political philosophy described here:

www.nationalreview.com/2024/07/j-d-vance-pick-represents-another-nail-in-coffin-of-reagan-republicanism/amp/

I don’t know if the Democrats have anyone comparable. Newson I think is too compromised by out of control crime? Anyway Biden hasn’t put anyone exciting in place. All the more reason that he needs to step down, and then perhaps Kamala (if it must be her) can come up with someone new and fresh to join her on the ticket.

Michelle Obama, your country needs you!

Trump doesn’t even need to campaign or speak at this point. He can just sit and watch the Democrats bury themselves. How depressing for Americans that those two are the choice they have to make. It’s an argument against a two party system that’s for sure!

There are two main problems:

Any democrat who might have the potential to win is going to want to wait until 2028 now to run so they have a proper chance. It’s such a long shot now for a dem to win as it’s late in the day, nobody wants to give up their chance.

Secondly, it’s money. The donations were given to the Biden/Harris ticket so only those two can use them without a lengthy process. Anyone else, no campaign money.

At this point, it’s now Biden or Harris. I’m not sure one is more likely to win than the other.