, Columnist
Biden, Sanders Aren’t That Old (Relatively Speaking)
As humans live longer, we need to redefine “elderly.”
Not that old, relatively speaking.
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As the Super Tuesday dust settles, observers keep talking about the ages of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, who have amassed the most delegates, as though this should be a matter of serious concern.
I’d like to dissent, for two reasons. First and most obviously, we’re suffering from recency bias. Before President Donald Trump, we had three consecutive two-term presidents who were relatively young: Bill Clinton, who was 46 on Election Day of 1992; George W. Bush, aged 54 in 2000; and Barack Obama, who was 47 in 2008. Before that, presidents tended to be older.