The question of the age of presidential candidates goes back more than four decades. President Ronald Reagan answered it by promising to resign if he became disabled, then making a clever joke that took his campaign from a shaky debate performance to a landslide victory in 49 states and a second term.
“I will not make age an issue in this campaign,” Reagan said in response to the question he knew would be asked in what may be the most famous moment in campaign history. “I will not exploit for political purposes the youth and inexperience of my opponent.”
The audience roared, even Democratic Vice President Walter Mondale laughed – and Reagan’s re-election was back on track.
Now, Democratic President Joe Biden, 81, is striving for such a moment of redemption after a disastrous debate performance against Republican former President Donald Trump, 77. Those 90 minutes last week set off alarms among Democrats who hoped Biden would prevent Trump from returning to the White House — and heightened concern among Democrats who were hoping Biden would prevent Trump from returning to the White House. Voters have long been skeptical how either of these older men would govern a complex nation of more than 330 million people for four more years.
More than two dozen people spent time with the president privately Reporters describe him as sharp and focused. But there are also times, especially late at night, when his thoughts seem jumbled and he wanders off in mid-sentence or appears confused, they said. Sometimes he doesn’t grasp the details of policies. He sometimes forgets people’s names, stares into space and moves slowly around the room, they said.
Biden has vowed to stay in the race, despite signs of eroding support on Capitol Hill.
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“I’m running … nobody is pushing me to leave,” Biden said on a call Wednesday with members of his reelection campaign team. “I’m not leaving. I’m in this race all the way and we’re going to win.”
But the question he faces is far more personal, according to an expert who followed Reagan’s health during his presidency.
“The most important debate of the campaign is the one playing out inside Joe Biden’s head right now between the part of his mind that tells him he’s the chosen one, and the part that’s more self-aware,” said Rich Jaroslavsky of the University of California, Berkeley, formerly of The Wall Street Journal.
A nation increasingly accustomed to dealing with aging
At its core, the question of how old one can be president is a question of competence. And Americans have never had more personal experience with the effects of aging than they do today.
A wave of retirements Baby boomers means millions more Americans know when they see someone declining. For many, that widespread experience has made Biden’s shaky performance during Thursday’s debate a return to familiar reality.
Trump seemed more vigorous, even though he lied or distorted a long list of facts. When he challenged Biden to a cognitive test, Trump failed to name doctor who had administered his to him.
“Is this an episode or a condition?” Rep. Nancy Pelosi, 84, D-Calif., asked on MSNBC, reflecting the question dominating Democratic circles this week. “It’s legitimate — for both candidates.”
Reagan faced the same questions before he was even elected, as he was the oldest president at the time. In 1980, at age 69, he vowed to resign if he experienced serious cognitive decline while in office.
“If I were president and I had any feeling that my abilities would be diminished before a second term, I would go,” he told The New York Times on June 10, 1980. “In the same way, I would resign as well.”
This did not happen. Reagan served two full terms, leaving office in 1989. He announced in 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease illness. He died in 2004.
Neither Trump nor Biden have made a similar commitment, and their campaigns did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
For Reagan, the age issue faded during his first term, as health concerns focused on his recovery from a near-fatal assassination attempt in 1981. He appeared headed for easy reelection. And debates seemed a natural setting for the smooth-talking former Hollywood actor. But his performance in the first matchup with Mondale in the 1984 campaign brought the age issue back into focus.
The president, then 73, rambles and hesitates. He seems to lose his train of thought at one point and appears tired at others. No one has ever seen him behave like this in public, recalled Jaroslovsky, co-author of a paper titled “A New Race Question: Is America’s Oldest President Now Showing His Age?”
Important differences between 1984 and 2024
Reagan’s age, and indeed his fitness for a second term, has become an integral part of the 1984 campaign, a striking parallel to what’s happening in 2024, after Biden’s faltering debate performance. But there are fundamental differences.
Reagan led in the first debate, while Biden and Trump were virtually tied. On stage, “Biden was terrible from the start,” said Jaroslovsky, the founder of the Online News Association.
Then as now, Jaroslovsky said, the embattled president’s supporters used forceful rhetoric.
Reagan’s team said he was tired. Some blamed his staff for overpreparing him, Jaroslovsky said. Biden’s team cited fatigue from two foreign trips that left even the youngest staffers exhausted. It was a bad night, they said. The blame was leveled at the president’s aides. Capitol Democrats Complain that Biden’s performance had hurt their chances at the polls. And press critics have said that journalists had failed to hold the president and his team to account.
By Tuesday, Pressure mounts on Biden to withdraw from the race and open a A difficult process for Democrats to appoint someone else. The crisis made waves across the Democratic Party With just six weeks left until the Chicago convention, it’s unclear whether Biden and Trump will debate a second time.
In 1984, Reagan’s moment of glory came in the second debate, at the 33rd minute, when Henry Trewhitt of the Baltimore Sun said, “You are already the oldest president in history, and some of your aides say you were tired after your last meeting with Mr. Mondale.” Reagan then straightened his feet and suppressed a smile. He was ready.
Trewhitt noted that President John F. Kennedy (the youngest elected U.S. president) barely slept during the Cuban Missile Crisis: “Do you have any doubt about your ability to function under such circumstances?”
“Not at all, Mr. Trewhitt,” Reagan replied. Later, he said, “I’m in charge.”
