It’s never great when people use actuarial life charts to make a point, but for President Joe Biden’s supporters, it’s the best evidence they have that he will live through a second term.
At the Brookings Institution, former Clinton aides William Galston and Elaine Kamarck recently made the case that while old, Biden shouldn’t die in office if he wins a second term.
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“Is Biden really likely to die before age 86, which is what he would be at the end of his second term? The Actuarial Life Table published by the Social Security Administration gives the average male at age 82 a 67% chance of living to 86 — for Biden that gives him a full second term in office,” they said in a new report.
Doctor Jonathan Reiner on CNN regarding Joe Biden’s frequent falls: “It wouldn’t be the worst thing for the president to use a cane. I know he may not like the optics but falling appears much worse…” pic.twitter.com/aoem3MyJcN
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) June 1, 2023
Using the table helped the duo make a point that other Democrats have been whispering for months: that Biden needs to make more public appearances to prove his vitality to skeptical voters.
“The only way Biden can convince the American people that they have misjudged him is to show them through speech and deed that he is vigorous, focused, and on top of his job. This means spending more time in the public eye, starting now — more press conferences, more public events, more trips, more visual demonstrations of the president in control,” they said.
The report came before Biden’s latest stumble. On Thursday, at the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony, he fell over sandbags. It was embarrassing, but he appeared unhurt.
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The fall is likely to play into the storyline that he’s too old to run again, even though he could face former President Donald Trump, who is five years younger but shows more vitality.
“For the public,” the duo said, “the age factor seems more serious for Biden than Trump. Although no one knows for sure why this is the case, it cannot be ignored. In politics, appearance is reality, or at least an important part of it. Physical and mental fitness are threshold qualifications for the presidency, as moral fitness used to be.”
