In the midst of the 2024 presidential election race, Joe Biden - who is seeking re-election - is facing a difficult opponent to beat: age. The state of health of the oldest serving president in the country's history worries most Americans and raises serious concerns about his ability to govern.
Biden constantly suffers from absent-mindedness, stumbles and falls (events that further damage his image in the public eye). As reported by Politico, the concern has been passed on to his team, who acknowledged that they are making subtle 'adaptations' to their routines to "limit situations where any signs of physical frailty may be on display."
Changes in Biden's routine
Two of the president's advisors commented anonymously that one of the changes was to reduce the number of stairs he climbs on the presidential plane (Air Force One):
An intentional change so that the 80-year-old president would more often climb the lower stairs to facilitate his travels and limit the possibility of missteps. Why climb 26 steps, sometimes wobbly, when you have the option of going up or down only 14? Especially when few outside the press realize it.
Heads of state often use these stairs in bad weather. However, a report by NBC revealed that in the last two months - and after his slip at the graduation ceremony of the Air Force Academy in Colorado. Biden has used the short staircase 84% of the times he has boarded and disembarked the plane. (i.e., 31 out of 37 times). Prior to this event, it was only used on 37% of its trips.
Another change has been to wear a less formal and more comfortable type of footwear (sneakers instead of dress shoes):
Sneakers are another concession to age-demanding comfort. One person close to the president said Biden was always reluctant to wear anything but dress shoes, believing that any other style of footwear was unpresidential. But he has softened that stance in recent months.
"The age factor is the president's biggest political problem"
Despite these changes, "the age factor is undoubtedly the president's biggest political problem in his re-election campaign," said Politico.
A survey by The Economist/YouGov revealed a few months ago that most Americans believe that age and health limit Biden's ability to serve as president. Forty-five percent say that the president is "severely" hampered in his ability to do his job, while 34% believe that these variables make it "a little" more difficult for him to perform his duties.
