As the heat generated by the presidential contest between incumbent President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, his predecessor was spreading across the globe, I asked an old friend based in Atlanta USA, whom she was going to vote for. I wasn’t quite prepared for her answer which was short but decisive. ‘Neither’ she said. “Why” I wanted to know since she wasn’t known to be a political bystander. ‘Both are too old’ another short but definitive answer. Subsequent unfolding events partly vindicated her as Biden dropped out shortly after her comment on what was pushed in the media as age related cognitive disorientation and performance during a live debate.
On the other hand, the other ‘old man’ won the election convincingly over Biden’s much younger replacement. He was 78. His landslide victory seemed to indicate that his advanced years were discountenanced by a large number of American voters. Yet, US Presidency, as most Presidencies, is a high pressure job that demands constant mental and physical alertness. It is a job on which no incumbent can afford to sleep as an unguarded decision by him can derail global alignments. Or worse, cause a regional or global war. Even the best of them are found to have aged considerably after just a term.
