opportunity; he courageously challenged Netanyahu not to overreach in response to the Hamas terrorist attack, arguing overreach was the mistake America made after 9/11 and then he temporarily halted arms supplies when Israel invaded Rafa.
But it must be acknowledged: Biden has come under attack for his age – and not so much as the number (81) that tells his age, but because of hesitancies in speech (his hesitancy when reading, often attributed to his awareness of stuttering and problems with certain words), his gaffes (something that has plagued him through his career), his stiff walk (a combination of arthritis in his back, neuropathy in his feet, and the long-term effects of breaking his foot in November 2020), falling (over a unseen sandbag), and just outright mistakes (reading the term ‘pause’ from instructions off his teleprompter).2
These instances were used by opponents, most notably Trump supporters, to suggest Biden was too old and too out of touch to oversee a second term. But it is not too hard to find similarities in Trump world: Trump is 78 years of age (only four years younger than Biden),
mistakes some people for others (E. Jean Carroll for his former wife Marla Maples, Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden for President Obama, Jeb Bush for George Bush), uses two hands to drink water from a plastic bottle (an early sign of onset dementia), nearly fell when walking down a ramp (West Point) the day before he turned 75, and more recently enters into rambling and undecipherable forays when the teleprompter fails. Quite possibly, the real reason Trump seems younger and more vibrant than Biden is he dyes his hair, constantly boasts about his prowess while mocking others, and hires questionable doctors who give him clean bills of health.
Consequently, it can be argued Biden is a man who has apparently searched – in some manner, through his various trials and tribulations – for the “Idea of the Good” and has sought to discover what truth/s have revealed themselves: he has a vision and the courage of his conviction, but he is also a person willing to admit to, learn, and grow from past mistakes. This would suggest he was forced by contingencies of the world to leave the darkness of the cave, and through decency and
empathy worked to enlighten others still in the
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