OK, how many of you noticed that Jimmy Carter turned 100 on Tuesday?
He’s the oldest living ex-president ever. And to be honest, it doesn’t sound as if he’s having a terrific time. Recently widowed — Rosalynn died almost a year ago at 96 — and living with home hospice care, Carter’s surely looking forward to voting against Donald Trump.
Thank you, Donald, for reminding us of the one way you give Americans of all ages an opportunity for achievement.
Earlier this election year Americans were obsessed with age — President Joe Biden’s age, to be precise. He’s 81, and even for fans it was sort of hard to imagine him dealing with some massive world crisis at 85.
Soon, Biden will be leaving the stage. (Be honest, does it take you a minute to remember he’s still in the White House?) The candidates to replace him are Kamala Harris, 59, and Trump, who at 78 is the oldest major party presidential nominee in history.
Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, are pretty much the same age. They both were born in 1964, the year Trump graduated from high school.
We haven’t really talked much about Trump’s age, at least compared to the national obsession with Biden’s. But think about it: The Republicans now have a ticket in which the vice presidential nominee is not just young enough to be the presidential nominee’s son; JD Vance, at 40, is also young enough to be Trump’s grandson. Why isn’t it a bigger issue? Probably because as a politician Trump has always been so crazy — well, ego-driven, attention-obsessed — that age seemed like the least of his problems.
But now that’s got to change. If voters felt 81 was too old for Biden, it’s hard to believe they can overlook 78 for Trump. Maybe we can turn the conversation to what he ought to do next. The ideal scenario is for a post-retirement life that’s even more fulfilling than what came before. Think about Carter winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his good works in everything from building housing for the poor to traveling around the world to promote international understanding.
Well, I can’t quite picture Trump there. But maybe a reboot of “The Apprentice,” where he could fire an ambitious, upwardly mobile careerist under the age of 40 every week.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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