Age old question for voters

What makes someone in their 70s think they should be president, asks Roxanne Roberts

Can we talk about Joe Biden’s face? And Bernie Sanders’ heart attack? And Elizabeth Warren’s honey blonde hair? And Donald Trump’s unnaturally orange hue?

Can we talk about the senior citizens running for president?

Trump and three leading Democratic challengers are all septuagenarians, and there’s not enough hair dye or spray tan in the world to cover up that fact. They may be smart; they may be experienced but — sorry, boomers — 70 is not the new 50.

The median age for presidents at the time of their inauguration is 55. Trump was the oldest when sworn in at age 70; Reagan was 69 and George Washington just 57.

That makes the advanced age of the top 2020 presidential candidates historic: If elected, Warren would be 71 at her inauguration. Biden would be 78, Sanders 79, and Trump would begin a second term at age 74.

How much of this is about chronological age and how much is the perception of age? Psychologists say it’s really about first impressions, a quick and often subconscious evaluation of a candidate’s health, strength and competence.

Politicians can’t lie about when they were born, but they can appear younger: Bounding onstage, covering grey hair, plumping wrinkles and sagging jowls with Botox.

It’s not about vanity; it’s about looking fit and energetic. Yes, it’s superficial and, yes, it makes a difference. But there’s more to this numbers game.

“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,” former President Jimmy Carter, 95, said in September.

Trump says Carter was “referring to Biden”. “I just feel like a young man,” the current President said in April. “I’m so young. I can’t believe it. I’m the youngest person — I’m a young vibrant man.”

Naturally, the topic came up at the Democratic debate last month: Biden cited his age and experience as a good thing, then promised to release his medical records. Sanders, asked about his recent heart attack, said he would mount a “vigorous campaign all over this country. That is how I think I can reassure the American people”. Warren said she would “outwork, out-organise, and outlast anyone, and that includes Donald Trump, Mike Pence or whoever the Republicans get stuck with”.

None of them really went to the heart of the question: Are these people too old for the job?

Until the 1950s, hair colour was the quickest way to determine someone’s age; most people had a head of silver hair by the time they were 60. Then in 1956, Clairol introduced an at-home colouring process that allowed Grandma to be a blonde, a redhead or simply claim “good genes”. And Grecian Formula for men promised to imperceptibly fade away the grey. Politicians had a new tool in their bag of tricks.

Ronald Reagan insisted his glossy locks were naturally brown. Nancy Reagan’s unofficial biographer, Kitty Kelley, finally uncovered the big secret: The first lady’s hair stylist had been secretly colouring the President’s grey roots for more than 20 years.

The White House will not say if Trump dyes his hair, despite the fact it is not a colour found in nature. (Mike Pence, on the other hand, was rocking grey in his 30s.) If grey hair is a problem for men, it is rarely found on female candidates. Warren aged from a brunette to a honey blonde. (Her campaign did not respond to a request for comment.) Nancy Pelosi, 79, is a light brunette with nary a stray grey. None of this is surprising: More than two-thirds of American women use some form of hair colouring.

It takes a politician like Sanders, who has branded himself as a bombastic iconoclast, to sport an unruly head of white hair. Or China’s President Xi Jinping, who made headlines in spring for allowing streaks of grey to appear, breaking with the customary jet black hair worn by the nation’s leaders dating back to Mao Zedong, according to CNN. Xi, who is protected by a new constitutional amendment that allows him to rule for life, now has the freedom — at age 66 — to age publicly. Today’s politicians have hundreds of cosmetic enhancements at their fingertips: teeth whiteners, tanning beds, nips, tucks, laser treatments and fillers. The goal is not necessarily to look young; the object is to appear refreshed. The best work (Pelosi’s, if any of the expert speculation is correct) is the medical equivalent of a really good vacation.

For many voters, looking old and tired translates to being old: old-fashioned, old boys club, old ideas. Ageing faces have less fat, creating unflattering shadows that make people look exhausted or angry — especially on a high definition television, where the lights are harsh and unforgiving.

“We all know these people are old,” wrote Bonnie Kristian in the Week. “Surely, they know we know they’re old. So why not own it?” Instead, she says, Biden has “created a bizarre simulacrum of endless — well, not youth, but certainly a long-gone upper middle age. The combined effect of the tan, the teeth, the hair, and maybe Botox and fillers, if not a facelift, is on the verge of unsettling.”

Biden, it seems, is in rarefied company with former Secretary of State John Kerry (whose face went through a startling transformation a few years back), Vladimir Putin and a growing number of CEOs. Smoothing a jawline, softening crow’s feet, shaving even five years off can make a significant difference.

For the most part, Trump has escaped similar scrutiny about his age, although his hair is a subject of fascination: His longtime personal doctor said Trump takes Propecia to address male pattern baldness.

Many see the President’s twohour rallies as proof of his health, regardless of his seemingly sprayon tan or his penchant for junk food. His age rarely makes headlines because so many people have so many other reasons to question his fitness for the job.

“Trump doesn’t break one or two rules — Trump breaks every rule,” says Republican strategist Doug Heye. “That’s one of the things that allows him to get away with things that no one else could. If Biden, Bernie or Warren came out with a statement from their doctor that said, ‘This is the most fit person in the history of civilisation’, they’d get filleted for it. And sure, people made fun of Trump, but then we moved on to the next thing about Trump.”

In 1984, Reagan lost the first presidential debate against Walter Mondale: His closing was muddled, confused. Was the 73-year-old President too old for a second term?

That’s when Reagan delivered the now classic line: “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” The audience burst out laughing, including Mondale.

But during Reagan’s second term “something was amiss” in terms of his memory and mental acuity, according to his son Ron. Reagan was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1994, almost six years after he left office.

Deep breath. The 2020 election is a year away, a lifetime in politics. Maybe none of these people will be their party’s nominee.

Maybe we’ll be asking instead: Are these young politicians too naive and inexperienced to be president?