He ran ads that pitted his generation's ideas against those of an opponent more than 30 years older. As Biden wrote in his 2007 memoir, "Promises to Keep," he looked so youthful that the secretary of state at the time, Henry Kissinger, once mistook him for a staffer.īiden used his age to his advantage to win that race. He is the sixth-youngest person elected to the chamber. Biden was the youngest US senator at that time.Īge has been a part of Biden's story for decades, ever since Delaware voters first elected him to the US Senate in 1972, days before his 30th birthday. ![]() ![]() Joe Biden of Delaware addresses Drexel University Alumni in 1974. If he wins, he would be 82 on Inauguration Day - becoming the oldest sitting president and breaking the record he set in 2021 - and 86 upon leaving office. He has said he expects to run again in 2024, as long as he's in good health. Yet Biden heeds Thomas' poetic words: "Rage, rage against the dying of the light." His longtime chief of staff, who succeeded him in the Senate, has literally written a book on retirement. ![]() Only two other men from his freshman Senate class are still living, and they're both in their early 90s, having long ago left politics. He's tragically lost a wife and two children. Insider's " Red, White, and Gray" series explores the costs, benefits, and dangers of life in a democracy helmed by those of advanced age, where issues of profound importance to the nation's youth and future - technology, civil rights, energy, the environment - are largely in the hands of those whose primes have passed.Īcross a half-century in federal politics - a 36-year Senate career representing Delaware, two terms as vice president, and three bids for the presidency - Biden has outlasted many of those he leaned on and grew up with in private and public life.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |