How old is biden

Bernie Sanders and 70 Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The graying ballot has led many to suggest that the stress of presidency is not for the aged, or that it might be time to cap the age of future candidates. Could an old president ever represent the interests of the young? So Vox asked experts on opposing ends of the age spectrum — one specializing in the elderly, and the other, the politics of the young — to answer this question: How old should a president be?

Ultimately, the question elicits no easy answer. But in asking our writers to tackle the idea, we can better understand how age affects and intersects with the most powerful role in our nation. Joe Biden, the year-old Democratic nominee, is older than the microwave. Two of the highest-profile women candidates for president — Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren — were also born in the s, at least a decade before little girls started to play with Barbie dolls.

Theodore Roosevelt, who became the youngest president ever at 42, had the foresight to preserve roughly million acres of public land for future generations to enjoy.

John F. Barack Obama, who became president at 46, shielded young undocumented immigrants from deportation and committed to the Paris climate agreement, aimed at preserving the planet for future generations. The youngest presidents tended to think more clearly about policies that would benefit future generations, and were less circumscribed by longstanding norms and prejudices.

Even famous presidents who seem like great men of history would have been considered young, fresh faces in our current climate. Abraham Lincoln was in his early 50s when he shepherded the nation through the Civil War, younger than Kamala Harris. Johnson, who, years later, would take the oath of office at Until the early s, young people tended to vote roughly the same way as their parents did. Even the baby boomers, although slightly more liberal than their parents, favored Richard Nixon in and Ronald Reagan in In fact, Barack Obama was the first president to owe his decisive victory to youth enthusiasm.

And generational change is almost always more complicated than it appears. Of course, medical and lifestyle advances — like the decline of smoking — have meant that people in their 60s and 70s are likely healthier and stick around longer than people the same age in earlier eras.

Still, US leadership is trending old not because voters favor older leaders, but because the system protects incumbents — and because the campaign finance system makes it harder than ever to raise the money necessary to unseat a sitting leader. Without a new generation of leaders breathing down their necks, the established leaders are simply sticking around and aging in place.

Charlotte Alter is a national correspondent at Time covering political campaigns and youth social movements. Should we be worried? Reagan made sure the public saw him chopping wood and riding horses. Trump, after being diagnosed with the coronavirus, quickly returned to a busy campaign schedule -- holding dozens of crowded rallies in battleground states in the final weeks of the campaign.

Those events flouted coronavirus guidelines on social distancing, wearing masks and avoiding large gatherings. In , William Harrison, 68, attempted to show off his vigor by delivering a lengthy inaugural address without a coat or hat. Weeks later, Harrison, then the oldest president elected in U.

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Joe Biden is old. But how old compared to other leaders? Published Nov. You could use a good laugh Subscribe to our free Stephinitely newsletter Columnist Stephanie Hayes will share opinions and funny business with you every Monday. Explore all your options. Federal appeals court stays vaccine mandate on large businesses Nov. Why are oil prices so high? And what can be done about it? What do the midterms — and — hold for the GOP?