Michael Ramirez: Bad Old Days
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Michael Ramirez: Bad Old Days
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BAD OLD DAYS by Michael Ramirez, June 4, 2023
I once thought of starting a sarcastic greeting card company. One of my birthday cards read, “You know you’re old when the only dating you do these days is carbon dating.” I think time has shown that it probably was a wise decision to focus on editorial cartooning instead.
Time has a way of doing that.
The old saying, “With age comes wisdom,” was obviously written by some old guy.
Now, watching Congress on CSPAN, as I do every… single… daaaayzzzzzzz… it is very easy to discount that thought. But as a general rule of thumb, people should learn from their past experiences, and that should make them wiser.
The problem is, there are far too many in Washington DC, who never learn from their mistakes, and they seem to make the same ones over and over again.
A quick look at the average age of our lawmakers and you move into another category altogether, of those who, not only never learn from their past mistakes, but cannot remember the recent ones either.
Now, I’m old. If you ask my readers, I am certain they would put me in that latter category.
I forget where my keys are, I can’t remember names, and I sometimes lose my train of tho…Speaking of trains, did you see the movie “Bullet Train” with Bruce Pitt? I love that movie. The Karmic theme that enveloped the essence of the movie was brilliant… I know it wasn’t Bruce Pitt, it was Brad Paisley… er… Brad Pitt? What was I saying?
Oh yeah. Old age.
That is not to say that old age automatically disqualifies you from the realm of sensibility, but it becomes an issue when it becomes a significant factor. For instance, there are serious questions about Senator Diane Feinstein’s cognitive health. The fact that she turns 89 on June 22 is not the only reason for concern, but it certainly is a relevant factor in the equation.
President Biden’s fall on the stage of the Air Force Academy graduation ceremonies can easily be excused. Who of us has not tripped over some object that was, perhaps, not placed in a well-thought-out location? However, the jumbling of words, the pronounced gait, and his fragility, all raise serious questions about his mental acuity over the next five years.
There were questions about President Biden’s mental capability long before this last fall. He’s been on the wrong side of just about every major issue throughout history. He even opposed the raid to get Osama Bin Laden. He has done significant damage to this country, just in the past two and half years, but that was more reflective of his policies than his age. Barak Obama did the same damage during his eight years and he started his presidency at age 47.
But Joe Biden’s reelection bid at 80 years old puts his age into the spotlight. 68% of Americans think he is too old for another term. Almost half of the Democrats, 43%, think Biden is too old for another term. His approval rating is hovering at 36%... And having Vice President Kamala Harris poised to take over just in case… is not reassuring to anyone.
The good news in that poll for Joe Biden’s team is that among the people who say Biden is too old, 62% also say Trump is too old.
To put all of this in perspective, both Biden and Trump will be older when they enter office for their second term, than Ronald Reagan was when he LEFT after his second term. Ronald Reagan was 77 years old when he completed his presidency, a year younger than Joe Biden was when he began his.
Fortunately for Joe Biden, the only thing he hurt when he fell at the Air Force Academy commencement ceremony was his pride, and probably his reelection chances.
Have a great week.
Best,
-m
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