July 25, 2025
Here is a real door stopper:
Was the Nuclear Football in the hands of a man suffering from dementia?
For those not familiar, the Nuclear Football is the briefcase carrying the nuclear codes which accompanies the President wherever he goes.
Joe Biden is a man of my age group, so I can very much relate to his situation. When I saw the stumbles, I saw them as age-related. You do recognize various attributes in your contemporaries just because you do. Can’t explain it any better than that.
The entire subject of geriatric limits has always been a third rail. Politicians are unwilling to alienate a segment of the population that reliably votes in every election. Just try and even suggest driving limits in Florida, for example. And then we have all the anti-discrimination rules in place…the tort bar is ready to pounce and litigate.
But perhaps it is now time to revisit this. I read one idea that suggested there should be an Evaluation Officer in the White House. I don’t know how you do that, but it’s one idea. Of course, that would become a political football…everyone straining to get their guy/gal into the position.
You can set a firm sunset date, but what do you do with Warren Buffett who has lived productively and alertly into his mid-90’s? One thing one knows with absolute certainty…given the trends now in longevity, we seem be living in an era where brains increasingly give out before bodies, which is a complete turnaround from history.
We spend immense time and money trying to forestall heart and stroke issues, as we should but we spend almost no time at all on the health of the brain. That seems to be limited to “do crossword puzzles.”
Funny story. So, we decided to celebrate my retirement (June 1) by joining friends, fly to Athens for a couple of days, and then spend the next ten cruising across the Med to Rome.
For Crete, our friend Vicky picked a nice bike tour as a shore excursion…bike around, have lunch enjoy the island. But I am 75 and the tour company would not allow me on the excursion. 70 was the max age. Keep in mind I ride a bike 8-10 miles most days and among my hobbies are running stock cars on NASCAR tracks. Evidently it is OK for me to run the Raisin’ Cain high on the banks at Daytona and Roger Penske is cool on that, but I can’t toddle on a bike on a mostly deserted part of an island. They said it was an insurance issue. Everything today seems to be an insurance issue.
Thus, in a nutshell, the problem. Should someone like me be learning the brakes on a bike or learning how not to use them on a stock car? Or neither? Or both?
This problem is not going away…of geriatric infirmity, and when, exactly, is enough, enough? It is fair, I think, to say the media experienced willful blindness when it came to Biden, but now, social media regularly features opinions that Trump has dementia. He doesn’t appear to (to me he appears exhausted but not demented), but to be fair to the Republic, it should be watched. But who should watch and decide? I just don’t know the mechanism that would work and be fair. And exactly where is the line?
Here’s a fun spoof headline from the satiric website, The Babylon Bee (I recommend it): “Media Unconcerned With Circulation To Biden’s Brain Deeply Concerned About Circulation to Trump’s Ankles.” Wish I had written that one.
This may come to a moment of national consensus if Trump decides to attempt to run for a third term. To be clear, I think that is a very, very bad idea from a Constitutional perspective since it begins to remove a pillar of the Checks and Balances we have. And it promotes the possibility of staff and other unelected proxies running the country, masking issues, making decisions.
Trump would be 83 which I have license to question. I’m pretty coherent, but I would not want me at 83 with the Football. Matter of fact, I wouldn’t want any of my contemporaries at 83 with the Football…Most have trouble navigating the golf ball at that age.
I mean, you could give it to me, but I can’t guarantee I wouldn’t bobble it in the end zone.
If that helps you frame this issue.
