He will be 70 in less than three weeks, which seems like a good time to run for president of the United States.

Donald Trump, 77, scored the big 7-0 before becoming president in 2016. President

Joe

Biden is three years ahead of Trump, and they will likely face each other for a second time in 2024. If I were to run as an independent, I might be able to block the youth vote.

It is not a negative thing for the leader of the free world to draw Social Security checks; After all, we’re not far from it

an era world

in which the number of people over 65 is greater than the number under 18. And we were just hours away from the premiere of ABC’s The Golden Bachelor, in which a 72-year-old goes looking for a date, and who knows where that could lead? You may remember a primetime TV show that helped catapult its star to the Oval Office.

I bring all this up because age and fitness are already central issues in the next election, with polls suggesting voters think Biden in particular is shaky physically and mentally.

If you had Biden and Trump taking a lap around the track, I think I’d put my money on Biden. As for mental acuity, there is no clearer threat to humanity than climate change, and only one in two men has a cognitive impairment in that regard.

To be fair, there are legitimate questions about how Biden and Trump will age. But there is no foolproof way to see into the future.

So what should we do about it?

Column: Is Biden too old to run for office again? Is Feinstein too weak to stay? It’s not about age

“I think the simple and correct answer is that ageism is unacceptable, and it’s not about how old you are, it’s about chronology, it’s about competence and ability,” said Paul Irving, senior consultant at the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging. .

And yet we all know that the older you get, the greater your risk for a number of conditions, including cognitive disorders.

Which leads one to wonder why,

at a moment in an era

When such a diverse range of young people are a dominant force in American technology, social media, culture and entertainment, the average age of a US senator is 65, and the top two presidential candidates, both white men, were born in the forties.

That’s partly because it takes a lot of money to run a campaign, and wealth is concentrated among the elderly. And older adults vote in greater numbers than younger people.

People just aren’t interested enough, said Ric Alonzo, 39, a technical engineer who ran for the Montebello City Council last year and ran shortly afterward. I haven’t had a political conversation with anyone in months.

Letters to the Editor: Is age in politics nothing but a number?

I met Alonzo in 2020 when he was among the hordes of volunteers fighting for Bernie Sanders in the senator’s presidential primary. Sanders was 78 at the time, but age was not an issue for Alonzo and others, who were energized by what they saw as Sanders’ passion, along with his positions on immigration reform, student loans, climate change and income inequality.

Most importantly, he had things I’d never seen in a politician, Alonzo said, and while he voted for Biden as the lesser of two evils, he wishes the president had a pinch of Trump’s two-fisted brutality. Trump is a loud man, he has fire in the belly, and he appeals to people with those conservative values.

Perception is everything in politics, said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe,

a political analyst for decades

. And yes, there seems to be a perception that Trump looks and acts younger than Biden, who has had a few stumbles. She brought up President

Gerald

Ford, who once stumbled and was forever branded a klutz, thanks in part to a Saturday night

live

sketch.

Jeffe, a contemporary of Biden and Trump, said Biden’s friendly demeanor, in contrast to Trump’s confrontational blistering tone, may also fuel the perception that one is old and added while the other is a young buck itching for a good fight.

Biden needs to hit him back, but he’s a product of an older political culture and it’s hard for him, Jeffe said, adding that Biden seems to live by a prudent principle: Never wrestle a pig, because you get dirty and the pig enjoy it. .

Biden answers questions about his age and opinion polls

Jeffe and former LA Times city editor Bill Boyarsky, 88, tackled the age issue in a recent episode of their sharp and always entertaining podcast Inside Golden State Politics. It’s not about age, it’s about behavior, Jeffe said during the podcast. The question is not: are you too old for the job? Can you get the job done?

Let voters decide who is too old to run for office and who is not, Boyarsky said. That’s why we have elections.

Kirstie Jeffries, a 34-year-old tech marketing specialist from Studio City, was campaigning for Senator Elizabeth Warren when I met her four years ago. When Warren withdrew, Jeffries went with Biden and had no regrets.

“I definitely wish we had younger candidates,” said Jeffries, who would especially like to see more women. “But having said that, I don’t see it as an issue in this election. Biden is old, but I think he’s doing well.

We may all like to think that we can do our jobs at the top level forever, but when I first wrote about this topic in April, I noted the value of letting go of one thing and moving on to the next. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who has been frozen in public more than once, should be on guard.

In April, Laura Mosqueda, a geriatrician at Keck USC, said it was time for Senator Dianne Feinstein to move on, not because she was 89, but because she could no longer do the job taxpayers elected her to do. Mosqueda said that too

at the same time

that she saw no evidence that Biden could not do his job.

And in my opinion, there is still no convincing evidence, although you can be sure that Trump and his supporters will continue to try to convince us that Biden is practically in a coma while the economy collapses and crime rates rise, neither of which where is.

I wouldn’t be shocked or disappointed if Biden announced he was ready to pass the baton, but I don’t expect that to happen. Instead, he will tout his achievements, remind everyone that Trump has been indicted more times than we can count, and talk about the value of civility, experience, and a steady hand at a time when insurrectionists are gathering at the gates.

I expect it will be Biden versus Trump, Round 2, and I naively hope that perhaps that character and substance, and not age, will decide the contest.

steve.lopez@latimes.com