Presidentish Joe Biden’s age has limited his public schedule to a grand total of six hours a day, according to White House officials who admitted to Axios this week that “his age has diminished his energy, significantly limiting his schedule.” Please note that Biden is merely available for “public or private events” during those hours and doesn’t necessarily have anything scheduled.
“It’s difficult,” Axios reported, to do anything with Biden “in the morning, in the evening, or on weekends.”
“The vast majority of Biden’s public events happen on weekdays, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.”
Today’s Axios report follows on the heels of former White House press secretary Jen Psaki telling MSNBC last month that “Biden does nothing at 9 a.m…. He is a night owl.”
But is he really?
Kevin Liptak reported for CNN during Biden’s first month in office that, unlike his predecessors, who were “night owls who spent the dark hours reading briefing materials or watching television,” “Biden is more of an early-to-bed type.”
Biden’s age is apparently even an issue for White House officials who “say they’re amazed at Biden’s stamina” because, as Axios says, they often add the all-important “for his age” caveat.
Well, yeah. Even with weekends off, an early bedtime, and a lid usually called no later than 4 p.m., Biden’s age limits him to a maximum of six hours of events on weekdays.
What happens when Biden is rousted out in front of the public earlier than usual? Let’s flash back to the brief banking crisis from March of this year when he had to calm the nation’s nerves at 9 a.m.
“Watching him operate that door wasn’t easy,” I wrote at the time. “Neither was watching his dull-eyed, uninflected reading off of the teleprompter.” Today I’d add that the White House had all weekend and half of Monday morning to get Biden prepped for that brief appearance. Physically, Biden might have decent stamina “for his age,” but it’s obvious that two years as POTUS have taken their toll on a man who was too senescent to run a real campaign the first time around.
The press is more than happy to play along, too.
I like to think the reporter on this cheat sheet is embarrassed but I suspect that she didn’t get into the business to report the news but rather to stand as a bulwark against the wrong sort of people achieving power. https://t.co/vUWePxKSqJ
— George MF Washington (@GMFWashington) April 27, 2023
Maybe that’s why Axios buried this analytical gem a third of the way down today’s report:
The White House rarely puts Biden in improvisational settings — or in front of hostile questions from reporters. So it’s tough for anyone outside his tight bubble to truly appraise the reality of Biden being the oldest president in U.S. history.
Nah, I think we’ve got it appraised just fine: Grandpa Joe is more or less OK during limited hours, provided everything is scripted for him, there are no surprises or challenges, and he gets to spend the weekends resting up. There are exceptions, like his recent “surprise” visit to war-torn Kyiv, but those are few and far between.
I’d just remind you that this is as good as it gets for Presidentish Biden. Aging hits all of us lucky enough to live long enough, and its effects only further diminish us with time. Biden is good for maybe six hours, five days a week in the third year of his first time. What might the first year of his (God forbid) second term be like?
While I wonder who picks up the 3 a.m. phone call, I don’t actually want to know the answer.
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