Joe Biden’s problem isn’t his age, it’s his ability to function.
America is home to many extraordinary people in their 80s who demonstrated the cognitive and physical strength to assume demanding leadership roles. In 1787, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin, who had only a few years earlier negotiated the highly favorable treaty that ended the Revolutionary War and had invented bifocal glasses, played a pivotal role at the Constitutional Convention, persuading delegates to allow citizens of the new United States to vote without property restrictions. At the convention’s closing address, Franklin wrote one of the greatest speeches of any early American endeavor, urging compromise and a unanimous vote in support of the Constitution.
In September of that year, Philadelphia socialite Elizabeth Willing Powell asked Franklin, “Which do we have? A republic or a monarchy?” Franklin spontaneously responded with the immortal line about the United States: “If we can keep it a republic.” Until his death at age 84, Franklin continued to invent new tools and write clear, humorous, and insightful prose, including a petition to Congress to end the slave trade and a satirical critique of Southern justifications of slavery published just a few weeks before his death.
Franklin was an exception. He maintained his capacity for mental focus, creativity, and sustained intellectual engagement even at an age when cognitive decline is becoming more common and people face difficulties performing everyday activities, like managing their money or organizing their medications. The same cannot be said for President Joe Biden. His disastrous performance in last week’s debate suggested possible cognitive problems impeding his ability to function. His public speeches since then have been marked by a lack of clarity. Energetic Clarity and Total confusionSome people are smart enough to become president at age 80. Biden has shown he’s not one of them.
Biden follows in Franklin’s footsteps as a surprisingly active octogenarian: At 79, he negotiated landmark inflation-fighting legislation; now, at 81, he’s helping U.S. allies in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. In the months leading up to the debate, Biden had been crisscrossing the country in his reelection bid and jetting around the world to meet with other heads of state. But there were clear signs at the debate that Biden’s age was catching up with him.
As people get older, the so-called Crystallized intelligenceKnowledge and skills accumulated throughout life. In the absence of brain injury or neurodegenerative disease (such as Alzheimer’s), vocabulary, general fact collections, and memories for things like how to knit or ski are well preserved into old age and can even improve. Conversely, another cognitive skill, fluid intelligence, tends to peak in middle age and then decline gradually with age, even in the absence of disease.
Fluid intelligence is the ability to pay attention, respond mentally, and solve problems. We use fluid intelligence when we’re faced with unfamiliar information that we must organize, when we solve new problems, or when we try to solve familiar problems in unusual situations. Fluid intelligence enables us to ignore irrelevant elements while focusing on important information or tasks, or to operate with one thing in mind, like when counting tips.
During the debate, Biden displayed a significant lack of fluid intelligence: he had problems concentrating, problems with verbal fluency at the end of almost every answer, an inability to spontaneously recall information, poor reasoning about the issues asked, and an inability to respond to unexpected challenges from Donald Trump. The point is that this debate was not unusual. Biden has had good days and bad days during his presidency, but Diplomat, journalistDemocratic lawmakers have also noticed and commented on his worsening cognitive impairment for months.
Trump displays many of these mental weaknesses, and others too: a poor ability to recall names and events, poor ability to focus, pay attention, and reason about novel situations. Consider his recent claims that electric batteries can sink ships (and enable shark attacks) and that battery-powered planes can’t land because of clouds alone. Yet Trump’s declining cognitive abilities have often been obscured by his brazen and chronic lying. Though he appeared more energetic and lucid than Biden in the debates, his answers were Counterfactual claimsThat’s three times more than Biden.
Different components of fluid intelligence begin to decline at different ages. For example, thought processing speed Peaking in the 30sThe exact timing and rate of cognitive decline varies greatly from person to person. Some people experience noticeable decline in intelligence in their 60s, while others have strong fluid intelligence well into their 80s. The rate of decline depends on many factors, including genes, physical activity, and education. Brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia accelerate cognitive decline. Biden’s changes in cognitive function do not necessarily indicate dementia or a neurological disease. (White House Denied The rumors that the president has Alzheimer’s or some other dementia are untrue — his performance is entirely consistent with normal aging, which is equally worrisome.
We need not go back 250 years to find examples of notable older Americans with superior fluid intelligence. At 93, Warren Buffett remains a successful investor, insightful commentator, and masterful shareholder meeting speaker. At 84, Nancy Pelosi is astonishingly quick-witted. In her final term as Speaker of the House, at age 82, she led the passage of the American Rescue Plan and shepherded the bipartisan CHIPS and science bills. She was often at odds with the younger President Trump, I was wittier than him.And the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist served in that role admirably until his death at age 80.
Early in his presidency, Biden asked sharp questions, was highly focused, and was engaged and clear in his speech. I spoke with him in small groups on Zoom several times during the 2020 campaign and had the honor of serving on his COVID advisory board in 2020 and 2021. I was unaware of any of the issues that have come to light over the past week. But now, his condition has clearly worsened. Avoid events after 8pm This suggests that somewhere in his heart he too is aware of the decline.
Biden has been a politician for almost 50 years, participating in debates and Q&A sessions. His response to an expected topic like abortion should be easy. But a slight change of scenery, a quiet stage with only Trump and the CNN host in attendance, was enough for his comments on the subject to reveal a shocking lack of fluid intelligence. “Look, a lot of young women are being victimized, including a young woman who just got murdered. He even went to the funeral. And the idea that that woman was murdered by an immigrant, he came to talk about that. But here’s the thing: There are a lot of young women being raped by their in-laws, by their spouses, by their brothers and sisters. It’s ridiculous. And they can’t do anything about it. And they cross state lines to try and arrest them.” Such inconsistencies indicate a kind of frailty not known to have plagued Biden’s Franklin or Rehnquist of their age.
Since the debate, people close to Biden have maintained that he is as alert as ever, if not every hour of every day. Whether the cause is normal aging, disease, or both, a person with declining fluid intelligence may experience fluctuations in their day-to-day functioning. But elderly loved ones, especially family members, tend not to notice the decline until it is quite advanced. Because they see the person every day, small changes often go unnoticed. They also adjust their expectations for the decline. They tend not to be good diagnosticians unless they are asked very specific questions about daily habits and symptoms. But the rest of us, the American public, were shocked and disturbed by what we saw, especially in contrast to Biden’s relatively strong State of the Union performance just a few months ago.
The White House and Biden campaign have suggested that the president’s problems at the debate were due to his grueling travel schedule and a cold. These explanations are not credible. It is certainly common for older adults to take longer to recover from stressors. But even if jet lag or illness exacerbates normal cognitive limitations, those limitations remain and may resurface. No one knows when the next life-or-death decision will be made. Crises do not wait for a president to be fully prepared. A person whose cognitive abilities can be significantly impaired by routine travel or a simple cold, like Biden’s, may be able to live a normal life, but he will find it difficult to withstand the rigors of negotiating with Congress or foreign leaders, much less making multiple decisions quickly during future domestic or global disasters.
In 1796, at the end of George Washington’s second term, he knew the people would re-elect him as many times as they wanted, but he shocked the world by voluntarily relinquishing executive power, a move that made him an enduring hero.
Biden should follow Washington’s example and withdraw from the 2024 election. By doing so, Biden can teach the world how to rise above politics and sacrifice for a greater cause. He too can become a hero. This election will decide the fate of democracy in this country. Many capable Democratic leaders from battleground states can beat Trump. One of them should take the baton from Biden. Then Biden’s legacy as a public servant and a successful president will be truly cemented.
