One of the key issues in 2024’s presidential election cycle is age. I was reminded of this when writing on recent polling that asked respondents whether the two frontrunners have the requisite mental, cognitive, and physical health to serve as president through 2028. (Not that I needed to be reminded — both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are already set to be the oldest major party nominees ever, and Biden, in particular, demonstrates on virtually a daily basis that he’s more than lost a step.)
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But it begs a follow-up question that I haven’t seen many asking: What will things be like when they’re gone? Most former presidents leave the White House years, if not decades, before they leave this earth. By then, they’ve achieved “elder statesman” status and are no longer impacting geopolitics in a significant fashion.
That’s highly unlikely to be the case for either Biden or Trump. I suppose it’s morbid to think in those terms, but right now, with presidential politics playing such an outsized role in the news cycle — and, frankly, our day-to-day lives — it’s strange to ponder a world without either — Biden, largely because he’s been a prominent political figure for over 50 years, and Trump, because he’s been a larger than life figure who’s, for better or worse, become the political Rohrschach of our times.
But someday, in the not-too-distant future, we’ll be living in a post-Biden, post-Trump era. What will that look like?
This “Moore to the Point” commentary aired on NewsTalkSTL on Monday, March 4th. Audio included below.
