Are there other examples of elected officials either stepping down or declining to run - in large part due to their age and (perceived) infirmity?
As others have been, my wife and I have been discussing Biden’s health, up through last night’s address. We both think he’s likely too old for another 4 years, tho his stutter is likely making him look/sound worse than he actually is.
But I was trying to think of other examples of politicians who stuck around too long, and was having difficulty coming up with many great examples. China and the Soviets used to have leaders until they died, but their appearances were limited to the occasional waving during parades. QE2 was ancient, but not elected, and had impediments to simply stepping down.
I guess in the US if we go down to Congress, there are plenty of examples (Feinstein, Thurmond, etc) of folk hanging on well after they were capable of executing their job functions.
Reagan might be a good comparison. Of course, I thought he was incompetent well before his second term… But I’m pretty sure his acting experience allowed him to perform better than Biden in debates and other public appearances.
I wondered what the rest of you thought about how your perception of Biden’s physical and mental prowess compared to other prominent politicians/officials.
Churchill resigned at 80.
Konrad Adenaur resigned at 87.
Urho Kekonnen resigned at 80.
Franco is still dead. But he made a mess of it. It was cruel, but deserved.
Tito was 88 minus three days when he died in office. Same mess:
Tito’s stubbornness and refusal to allow doctors to follow through with the necessary amputation of his left leg played a part in his eventual death of gangrene-induced infection.
Biden has done the right thing.
Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke with about a year and a half to go in his second term, leading to speculation that his wife Edith was effectively the U.S. president.
Woodrow Wilson wanted a third term but party leaders decided he was too ill to be nominated:
Woodrow Wilson and a Third Nomination
P.S. My link suggests that the idea of wife Edith as effective president is mistaken.
Thank you, but I was hoping for more than simply a listing of leaders’ ages. I was trying to think of other examples of world leaders who were of advanced age - or ill such as WW, and whose related level of functioning was widely believed to have been reduced.
Maybe phrased another way. Many people - including within his own party, believed Biden lacked the capacity for another term. Are there other major leaders who faced similar criticism. Or whom you think appear as impaired.
Sorry if I was unclear.
But it struck me as how unusual it is/was to even have 2 candidates as old as Trump and Biden. Then, I wondered if there were examples of candidates in their mid-late 70s who were so widely suspected of physical/mental infirmity.
On edit: I just looked up a list of the age of US presidents. Was surprised to see that only 2 previous - Eisenhower and Trump, were 70 or older at the END of their presidencies.
You missed Reagan. 77 at the end.
I saw a video, recently, where (as my unreliable memory has it) David Mitchell argued that Henry I seemed to have a plan in place for his daughter and her husband to take over the thrown after his death. However, as he aged and stayed on the throne he started to make bad decisions - including failing to follow through on some of the promises he had made to his daughter’s husband (ownership of some castles, I believe). Failing to do that, he both signaled a lack of faith in his own succession plan and failed to give his daughter and son-in-law the necessary resources that they would have needed to establish a base of power.
Or something along those lines.
I also noted that Putin came out of the Pandemic looking rather fat and undisciplined - at the same time that he decided to start a war that sent off a sequence of events that are now destroying his legacy and weakening his country. And he has - so far as I can tell - no particular succession plan in place.
He should have retired after topping out under Trump.
Doh! I knew that!
As noted in my OP, I think Reagan’s 2d term might be the best comparison to Biden at this point.
FDRs 4th term he had many of the same losses in memory and halting speech Biden does. Probably ineffective during most of it.
Churchill in his second term was thought to be showing signs of age and no longer capable of leadership.
If we stretch the definitions of “elected” and “world leader”, Pope Benedict XVI resigned at the age of 85, citing age as the reason.
Wasn’t his fourth term 3 months long?
I guess a lot of my questioning ought to go into another thread.. I think I was just thinking of how unusual it was for us to be in this situation, with 2 quite old candidates, and the questioning of their mental/physical acuity.
I’m going to ask that this thread be closed. Thanks, all.