Dem
51
GOP
49
Donald Trump is 78 and Kamala Harris is 59. Will that age gap become an issue in the campaign? If history is any guide, it will. When Joe Biden was the likely nominee, Donald Trump called him "Sleepy Joe" and "a broken down pile of crap."
Now the tables are turned and Harris and Tim Walz know it. She has told crowds that Trump would "return America to a dark past." She also called his attacks on her race the "same old show." Tim Walz keeps saying Trump is "low energy," "tired," and "needs to get a little rest on weekends." They are not going to let up. The only thing they have to worry about is insulting seniors. One could imagine Democratic ads featuring a fit-looking senior who says: "I'm 78, the same age as Donald Trump. I used to run a big company. Now I play tennis and racquetball vigorously and swim 20 laps every day. Could I do the toughest job in the entire world at my age? No, I couldn't. It requires someone much younger, who has more energy."
Age has factored into a number of recent presidential campaigns. In 2008, John McCain was 72 on Election Day and Barack Obama was 47. Obama once said McCain had "lost his bearings." In another ad he noted that McCain went to Congress in 1982, and noted that things had changed in the intervening 26 years, but McCain hadn't. Obama said McCain didn't know how to use a computer or even send e-mail. When a reporter asked McCain how many houses he owned, he couldn't remember. Oops. That hurt. Obama won.
In 1996, Bill Clinton, then 50, ran against Bob Dole, then 73. Clinton was careful. He liked to say: "I don't think Senator Dole is too old to be president. It's the age of his ideas that I question." But others did Clinton's work for him. Comedian Jay Leno cracked: "Bob Dole's senior aides are urging him to hurry up and make his list of potential choices for vice president. Searching for a vice president doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that Bob Dole has senior aides. How old are they—90, 100? I mean, senior aides?" Dole tried making self-deprecating jokes. He said he would put the 92-year-old Strom Thurmond on the ticket for age balance. It didn't work. The kid (Clinton) won.
Sometimes the age gambit fails, though. In 1988, George H.W. Bush (64) picked the 41-year-old Sen. Dan Quayle as veep to counter the fact that people considered Bush old. Quayle was endlessly mocked as young and dumb. On Saturday Night Live, he was played by a literal child. And in the vice presidential debate, Quayle really blew it. He compared himself to John F. Kennedy. His opponent, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX), then let loose with the most famous line in any vice-presidential debate ever: "I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." Bush and Quayle won, but that was the last election Quayle won and he left politics after he and Bush lost in 1992.
In 1984, the 73-year-old Ronald Reagan ran against the 56-year-old Walter Mondale. When Reagan botched the first debate, he said: "With regard to the age issue and everything, if I had as much makeup on as [Mondale] did, I'd have looked younger, too." In the second debate, he landed a now-famous zinger: "I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience." It worked. Reagan won.
Will age matter this time? If Harris pushes hard, it could. There are miles of footage with Trump garbling his words and producing incoherent word salads. She doesn't have to mention age, just show that Trump has lost his marbles. (V)