On Friday Oct. 4, news broke that Bernie Sanders suffered a heart attack.
The narrative of the 2020 race has largely been dominated by questions of who is too old to be president. But until now, the physical health of the candidates has been untarnished.
The consensus seems to be that age ought not to matter. What does matter is the vitality of the candidate. In this spirit, I will not record the ages of the candidates here.
Let us start with Former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden is the “safe” candidate in the race. He is one of the more moderate Democrats running and the expectation is that he would bring us back to the status quo.
Like the relative who can’t seem to stop talking about the “good old days,” Biden will not let us forget how much he supports President Obama and the work they did together.
Sanders was the lightning rod of the 2016 election and many still argue that he is. He is running the same campaign and he is paying for it in the polls. Currently, he is ranked third behind Biden and Elizabeth Warren.
And let us not forget that he just suffered a heart attack. Certainly, I am glad that he is okay and that he feels well enough to get back to the campaign trail. In 2016, he did have a lot more vitality which was why he was appealing. He was able to excite the democratic youth like Hillary Clinton could not. But the heart attack has forced him to scale back while he recovers.
Elizabeth Warren has been in political office for less time than Sanders and much less than Biden. The biggest knock against her is the controversy over her Native American heritage which was proved to be false. But she seems to have been able to rebound well. Of all the older candidates, her energy reminds me most of 2016 Bernie Sanders.
If an older candidate is going to take the nomination, and we vote based on liveliness, maybe it should be Warren.
While the critiques of age are widespread, few of the younger candidates have been polling well recently. In the latest Fox News poll, Joe Biden still tops Elizabeth Warren – 32% vs 22% — with Bernie Sanders taking third place at 17%.
The Democratic party will nominate an older candidate. I just hope they will be able to take on one of the most demanding jobs in the world for four years.
