Jimmy Carter wants age limit for the presidency — and he may have a point (Opinion)

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“If I were just 80 years old, if I was 15 years younger, I don’t believe I could undertake the duties I experienced when I was President,” Carter said.

Though Democratic candidates in the 2020 primary have sometimes tiptoed around discussing age, it becomes a legitimate question when Biden, 76, seems to struggle for his words, or makes outdated references like suggesting that black parents should turn on their record players to help improve their children’s education. “Is Joe Biden ‘Too Old?'” ran an Atlantic headline this July. The question has come up with President Donald Trump as well; the President’s frequent verbal salads are often linked to concerns about his mental fitness.

Should old age matter in a president? After all, there is reason to be skeptical of the critics, especially if we think that 80 is the new 60. We have had presidents who were considered old at the time but nonetheless found success in the job. Ronald Reagan, who was 69 when he took office, was in his seventies when he negotiated a historic agreement with the Soviet Union and a series of bipartisan agreements, including on immigration and tax reform.

Despite concerns at the time about his memory, Reagan, who would later be diagnosed with Alzheimers, ended his second term with strong approval ratings. Dwight Eisenhower, 62 when he was inaugurated, kept the nation out of nuclear war and departed as one of the most successful figures to hold the position, even mounting an ambitious campaign, though unsuccessful, to cut domestic and military spending. George H.W. Bush, who was 64 when he took office, helped oversee a peaceful end of the Cold War while pushing a historic deficit-reduction package through Congress.

But these instances of older Presidents doing their job (mainly) well don’t outweigh legitimate concerns over potential cognitive decline. The challenges that confront some senior citizens are familiar to most Americans, and a failing memory, in particular, could become a real impediment to presidential decision-making, especially in times of crisis. Youth does not ensure success in these struggles — but it’s fair to consider whether an older candidate’s mental acuity will be in top form. If not, it can result in poor decisions, or the delegation of decision-making to cabinet officials.

As historians dig through the Reagan presidency, his cognitive decline has been explored as one of the problems that beset him as the 1980s progressed, given the disease with which he would later be diagnosed. Reagan’s decline has been connected to such serious matters as his claims about what he knew during the Iran-Contra scandal.

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The old age of a president or a presidential candidate can also create a major discrepancy between their understanding of the country and that of most Americans. This has been an ongoing problem for Biden, who doesn’t seem to grasp why many voters are perturbed by statements he’s made about race relations — such as answering a debate question about the legacy of slavery by talking about a lack of parenting, and waxing nostalgic about working with Sen. James Eastland, one of the most notorious racists in Congress during the 1960s — or why they find his physicality with women problematic.

But Biden’s basic understanding of what the nation needs, and what the major challenges will be in the future, can seem grounded in earlier decades as well: Biden keeps talking about the possibility of bipartisanship, for instance, to a generation that has grown up seeing a Republican party unwilling to compromise on almost anything. During the 1996 campaign, President Bill Clinton criticized his opponent, Sen. Bob Dole (then 73), for being similarly out of touch; Clinton told voters he would “build a bridge to the future,” as opposed to Dole, who Clinton said would “build a bridge to the past.”

Of course, being old can bring many benefits: older people have more experience, they have seen more of the political world and they can often — though not always — make decisions that are based on well-informed, long-term perspectives rather than on the visceral emotions of the short term.

Older politicians have deep relationships and are embedded in powerful political networks that give them an enormous advantage over younger politicians when they’re trying to push through legislation. Nor does old age mean someone can’t be incredibly strong. Most observers, left and right, have not really questioned the mental stamina of Sanders (78) or Elizabeth Warren (70), even if they disagree with their policies.

Old age shouldn’t be taboo to discuss, but politicians and commentators should be careful to talk about age as a factor in the race without veering into bias against older candidates — and without being blind to the disadvantages younger candidates can face.

Still, in a moment when many Americans see that politics has moved in a dangerous direction because the office of the presidency is held by someone so clearly unfit to serve, it will be impossible for voters to ignore these kinds of concerns, about Biden and others.

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