Joe Biden: Can he move into the White House at 78?

"Creepy, sleepy Joe Biden". The description comes from Donald Trump (74), the incumbent most powerful man in the world. He's not very trustworthy either, but he's the boss. The president who has been proven to lie all the time, but who still sets the pace in the United States. Is Trump's paraphrase of his democratic challenger just another lie? A disparagement that could also refer to the two old men of the "Muppet Show", who always moan about the wrong at the wrong time?

The fact is: Joe Biden is an elderly man. But Donald Trump is too. In the election on November 3, 2020, a 77-year-old (Biden) will run against a 74-year-old Trump. Does the election campaign turn into a "Muppet Show" at the highest level of power, which is actually no longer that funny?

On the historical average, the previous 45 US presidents came to the White House at the age of 55. Only three ruled beyond 70: Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961) was 70 and four months old when he left office, Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) was 77. And Donald Trump is 74 at the end of his first term Incidentally, the youngest presidents (when they took office) were Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909) at 42 and John F. Kennedy (1961-1963) at 43.

The upper age limit is open

Applicants for the highest office in the United States must meet four basic requirements: they must have the right to stand as a candidate (i.e. they must not be incapacitated or prisoners), they must be US citizenship, have lived in the States for at least 14 years and are at least 35 years old be. The upper limit is open, the candidates may be elderly, but by no means not entirely comfortable. You should be physically and mentally fit. Too much gentleness with age could be interpreted as a weakness of character, dynamic appearance is always good.

That brings us to Donald Trump first. When he ran for the presidency as a Republican candidate in 2016, he was first and foremost dynamic, whether it was a lie or not. When asked what he saw when he looked in the mirror, he replied: "I see a person who is 35 years old." Many had to laugh at this insolence, but Trump probably meant it seriously, because now at 74 he is pillorying his competitor Joe Biden, who is not quite four years older, as sleepy and senile.

That doesn't sound so wild in English, the "creepy, sleepy Joe" is just a harmless, sleepy, old man. And that doesn't even come from Donald Trump himself, he stole it from the British band Herman's Hermits, which landed the hit "Sleepy Joe" in 1968. The song is about a daydreamer who does nothing ("You never gonna see / what the other people see / if you're always gonna be a sleepy Joe").

Rudy Giuliani: "He's showing signs of dementia!"

This is actually an insolence towards a man who was Vice President of the USA under Barack Obama (58) for eight years and who sat in the US Capitol for 36 years as Senator of the US state of Delaware. He has been teaching American constitutional law as a lawyer since 1991 at the School of Law at the private Widener University. But that doesn't bother Trump, he lets his lawyer Rudy Giuliani (76), also an elderly specialist in mendacious insults, explain the subject of Biden: "He shows signs of dementia!"

However, the accusation also harbors the risk of mix-ups. The "Frankfurter Rundschau" ruled: "The reviews are devastating. Too old, too old, no longer completely fresh as a dew, not available as a president. At first, one might think that Donald Trump is here. But far from it , it's about Joe Biden. " However, even during his decades of public service work, he has earned the reputation of often saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, writes the American magazine "Politico". He is a "gaffe machine" (blunder machine).

In 2007, for example, Biden said of future President Barack Obama that he was "the first mainstream African American who can express himself, who is smart, clean and a good-looking guy". In 2008 he asked the Democratic party colleague Senator Chuck Graham from Missouri to receive the applause he received. "Get up, Chuck, make them see you!" Graham has been paraplegic since a car accident as a teenager. He referred to the former British Prime Minister Theresa May as "Maggie Thatcher" and the massacres of El Paso and Dayton in the state of Ohio (2019) moved Biden to Houston and the state of Michigan.

Wrong facts and linguistic gaps

He claimed to have met with surviving students of the Parkland Massacre in Florida "as Vice President" and said, "We put truth over facts!" However, the shootout, which killed 17 people, occurred in 2018, and Biden had not been in office since January 2017. He also stated that "white children" are "just as talented" as the children of the rich – and suggested that poor children are just as talented as those of the rich.

Sometimes he also has other dropouts. Regarding the pre-election campaign, he said to a man who criticized Biden's demand for stricter gun laws in the USA: "You are talking shit!" The 77-year-old then indicated that the whole thing could also be clarified at the door. He always corrected his slip of the tongue, but the listeners remained somewhat uneasy. Are Biden's best years behind him?

On the other hand, Joe Biden, like no other Democratic politician, has the gift of emotionally embracing the political audience. He shows heart, and then suddenly he no longer looks old or even active. Then his eyes light up, even when it comes to the deadly sad.

Personal tragedy gives him charisma

The "Süddeutsche Zeitung" describes one of his election rallies: "There is a moment of silence when the candidate asks his audience to raise their hand if they too have lost a loved one. To a serious illness such as cancer, for example. Only hesitantly raise a couple of hands, then a little more. Until there is almost no one in the hall whose hand is still down. It's a moment of sadness, a moment of contemplation. A moment with Joe Biden. After ten minutes, the impression arises he has already shook hands with everyone, had a word of comfort and encouragement ready for everyone. Biden is personal, close, engaging. "

This charisma is rooted in the very personal tragedy of Joe Biden. In 1972 he lost his first wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi Christine in a car accident. Later, as Vice President at an event for parents of fallen US soldiers, he said: "The day will come when the thought of your loved ones will put a smile on your face before a tear runs down your face … The Pain will never go away completely, but it will become controllable. I promise you that. " Americans love Joe Biden for such words.

Then, on May 30, 2015, his eldest son, Beau, who was now the Attorney General of Delaware, died of a brain tumor at the age of 46. Joe Biden, who wanted to run for the successor to the then US President Barack Obama, stepped out of the running for the democratic candidacy. His reasoning: "Nobody should apply for the office of president who is not wholeheartedly involved in the matter." And his oldest son was his soul.

Return of the "soul of this nation"?

So it did not come to the duel Biden against Trump, which according to many insiders in Washington would have won Joe Biden by a huge margin. "I think I would have been the best president," he told ABC TV. However, it was right not to compete, "not only for my family, but also for myself".

Now he's attacking again. "We have to get our country back!" And: "This election is about the character of the candidate, about the character of the nation", he conjures a return of the "soul of this nation". He also means himself. Should "Sleepy Joe" actually win, he would be by far the oldest president of all time. He would celebrate his 78th birthday before he was sworn in.