No Country for Old Men? Wilson, Reagan, Biden, and Trump. A Historian’s Take

Historian H.W. Brands on Substack: “Any president or potential president is a package deal, comprising strengths and weaknesses. Age can weaken memory but it can enhance wisdom. On balance, wisdom matters more. Presidents don’t have to think on their feet; they don’t need facts at their fingertips. They make their decisions sitting down—or at least they should—and with aides to brief them. Steadiness of gait looks good on camera, but it says nothing about a president’s insight. Stamina is impressive on the campaign trail, but it has nothing to do with judgment.

“Biden isn’t too old to be president. That is, Biden’s age by itself doesn’t disqualify him to be president. Would he be a better president if he were younger? Not necessarily. He might be spryer, but he might be more rash. Comparable considerations apply to Trump.

“The ability to make sound decisions is the defining trait of a good president. There’s little evidence that this declines with age. If you don’t like a candidate, you’ve got to come up with a better reason than date of birth.”

Read the whole piece for his description of how Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan were impaired as president. He leaves out Franklin Roosevelt, who was sleeping close to 18 hours a day in his last year, even though he was a candidate for re-election. Even so, he won in a landslide in 1944 but survived just one month into his fourth term. If the depth of his disability were known or reported in 1944, as well as how removed from the center of power Vice President Harry Truman was, unrestrained pundits would have been hysterical.

Both of the following ads are propaganda. First, from the Trump campaign, showing Biden tripping up: