As we lurch toward the next Presidential election, America is discovering that both of the men running for the most demanding job on Earth are old. Even young men have fallen victim to the stress associated with the Chief Executive position. We routinely forget that several of our Presidents died while in office, and even some of those who were assassinated might have survived their injuries if they had had less demanding jobs. Those who did survive the honor of being President did not necessarily get to live for many years after leaving office. Washington called it quits when he was 65 years old and died just two years after leaving office. James Polk made it out alive, but only survived eight months after leaving the White House. Woodrow Wilson never recovered from the stroke he suffered while President, but he survived despite his severe disability for 2 years after his second term as President. Chester Arthur seemed fairly healthy when he exited the White House, but he died less than two years after he left the President’s Mansion.
We do not have sequential photographs or movies of Presidents during their years in office before the 1860s, but more recent visual records attest to the life-draining impact of the Presidency. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, two of our youngest Presidents, appeared to age eight years for every four years they served as the Chief Executive. The indomitable General Eisenhower was on life support for part of his Presidency, and Harry Truman realized Franklin Roosevelt was at death’s door when he met with him to discuss running as the Vice-Presidential candidate.
Somewhat ironically, several of those Presidents who failed to get re-elected lived the longest after leaving office. John Adams, Herbert Hoover, and Gerald Ford all failed to get second terms [Yes, I know Ford was appointed but never elected], and each survived to more than 90 years of age.
And so, as we look at and listen to the current candidates for the Presidency, we must wonder if they are fit enough to do the job and if they can do it for a full four years. Their repeated missteps and misstatements in recent months suggest that neither has the stamina or cognition required by the job. Given their limitations, both the current and former President are apparently more interested in power and prestige than in performance. Their insistence that they will both be on the ballot in November requires us to consider who will actually be running the country after either of them is elected.
Fortunately, the support staff for either candidate is already in place. There is nothing to suggest the current President will make any significant changes to his administration, except to fill the resignations that will occur after the election. Those resignations are likely to be numerous, but their replacements will undoubtedly come from the corps of people already working in offices in the West Wing and the Executive Office building.
If the former President is re-elected, we shall be re-united with Steven Miller, Rudy Giuliani, Roger Stone, J.D. Vance, Michael Flynn, and his other longstanding loyalists, as well as newer acolytes, including Vivek Ramaswamy, Elise Stefanik, etc.
Nikki Halley has added energy and color to the Presidential race, but the old men opposing her will see that she is a footnote in a predetermined contest. Her suggestion that Presidential candidates over 75 years of age be tested for mental function is simply unamerican. The Constitution only requires that the President be at least 35 years of age, been born in the United States, lived in the United States for at least 14 years, and never participated in an insurrection targeting the government of the United States.
It is apparent that the Supreme Court will soon discard the last qualification to allow the former President to run for the office. That the candidate be born in the United States has never really been enforced: Candidate John McCain was born on a naval air base in the canal zone of Panama. Consequently, if you are simply 35 years of age or older, you can be President of the United States. Being able to recall who was the President of France or who was the Speaker of the House during your Presidency is not a requirement. Being unwilling to support our democratic institutions and openly yearning to be a dictator are not disqualifiers.
General William Tecumseh Sherman was approached to be a candidate for the Presidency after his illustrious career in the American Civil War and famously responded, “If nominated, I will not run. If elected, I will not serve.” He had had all the power and prestige he ever wanted and knew when to quit the national stage. Much older and less intelligent men currently insist on staying in the contest for a variety of uninspiring reasons.
Our less than perfect system of government that wise men and women have struggled to improve over the past 200 years is exceedingly fragile. If it is entrusted to egotists or idiots, it could all unravel in days or weeks. Despite Thomas Jefferson’s claim that “In a democracy, people get the government they deserve,” We, the People of the United States of America, may soon get much less than we deserve as two clumsy, old men struggle to hold on to the reins of power.
Dr. Lechtenberg is an Easton resident who graduated from Tufts University and Tufts Medical School in Massachusetts and subsequently trained at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan. He worked as a neurologist at several New York Hospitals, including Kings County and The Long Island College Hospital, while maintaining a private practice, teaching at SUNY Downstate Medical School, and publishing 15 books on a variety of medical topics. He worked in drug development in the U.S., as well as in England, Germany, and France.
