Image:Marija Ercegovac.
Pepper has been dead for 35 years,but for voters contemplating another MAGA election (Make America Geriatric Again),his work to advance the rights of the elderly has been buried under an avalanche of fillers,fake tan and frequent faux pas. For the two main contenders,it should be a zero-sum game. At 81,President Joe Biden is just 3½ years older than Donald Trump,who turned 78 on Friday.
Instead,though,watching the pair spar with one another is like seeing a couple of demented long-term neighbours who,having settled in for the duration,nonetheless continue to duke it out by exchanging insults and periodically tipping the fetid contents of their bins over one another’s prized petunias.
The problem is,in this case,the petunias in question are the American people and,by extension,anyone with a vested interest in ensuring that whoever wins the race to the retirement home,nay,White House,is someone who has the physical stamina for the job (regardless of age) and,critically,is still fully compos mentis.
What makes the situation even more farcical is the efforts of both candidate’s campaign teams to camouflage their frequent verbal (and sometimes physical) slip-ups using the dark arts of clarification,expurgation and obfuscation.
Biden and Trump,meanwhile,spend much of their time in wedding-guest mode,pinballing between leading the chicken dance (albeit against the orthopaedic surgeon’s instructions) and emitting what one political commentator last week described as Trump’s “drunken uncle vibe”.
The effect is bewildering,and the outcomes astonishing. For his part,Trump has regularly sought to prove his mental acuity by brandishing a note that his doctor could not possibly have been strong-armed into writing while reassuring supporters that he “aced” the last cognitive exam he had taken. “I’ll let you know when I go bad;I really think I’ll be able to tell you,” he said.
It might already be too late. In recent months,Trump has mixed up the leaders of Hungary and Turkey, as a “wonderful man”,and warned that the world was facing a.
At a campaign event in Las Vegas on June 9,he delivered a that canvassed such matters as shark attacks and electric batteries before concluding that his preferred mode of death on a sinking boat was electrocution.
Joe Biden’s team referred to the spray as “unhinged” but they have had their work cut out for them managing their own candidate. Last Thursday,footage shot at the G7 summit in Italy showed the president appearing to wander away from a group of world leaders in the moments after a parachutist had landed in front of them. It was left to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to usher him back to the receiving line.
Before Joe Biden wandered off at the G7 in Italy.AP
In other recent gaffes,he read aloud teleprompter cues during a speech,asked a crowd how many times Trump has to prove “we can’t be trusted”,and claimed that American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin,who is currently being held captive in Gaza,was at the White House in May.
Last week,senior Trump aide Jason Miller claimed that Biden’s brain was “straight gnocchi at this point”.
Somewhat ironically,the issue of whether age should preclude them from seeking the top job is one on which the two men are united,with both issuing repeated,emphatic denials. Instead,each has pointed to the other’s perceived incompetence as the reason he is not fit to hold office,while maintaining his own health has never been better.
All of which brings us back to the late Senator Pepper,who was asked back in 1984 about the prospect of a presidential run. At that point,he had trifocals,two hearing aids,a hip replacement,a pacemaker,and,in the words of one political commentator,“a rumpled face that looks forever melancholy,even when its owner is not”.
Despite the physical ravages of age,Pepper came out swinging before the election. “I’ll be better able to throw my hat in the ring at 83 than Ronald Reagan will be at 73,” he declared before reconsidering and deciding he was a more suitable candidate for the deputy’s job because,after all,“it’s easy to replace a vice president”.
Michelle Cazzulino is a Sydney writer.
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