Is Biden Too Old to Run Again? We Asked People Born on His Exact Birthday
Louise Smoczynski is enjoying a quiet retirement in Madison, Wis., but she and her friends are starting to have health problems. Ken Diller is a biomedical engineering professor in Austin, Texas, who has taught for 50 years and isn’t ready to spend his days relaxing on a beach. They have one thing in common: They were born on Nov.
20, 1942, the same day as Joe Biden. The 46th president, the oldest to occupy the White House, is campaigning for a second term that, should he win, would put him in office until age 86. These octogenarian voters are among nearly a dozen Americans born the same day as the president that The Wall Street Journal interviewed.
They are uniquely suited to answer one of the biggest questions hanging over the 2024 election: Is Biden too old to run again? Most said no. But they were candid about the risks of aging in the years to come. “He has certainly got his wits about him," said Smoczynski, a Democrat who voted for Biden in 2020 and plans to support him again.
Smoczynski said she and the president are at a cutoff age, “where once you’re 80, it’s definitely downhill." She said she had been largely healthy most of her life, but was diagnosed about two years ago with endometrial cancer and continues to receive treatment for the illness. "A lot of our friends are dying or getting dementia," she said. “I probably shouldn’t bring that up because that makes 80 look terrible." Still, she tries to maintain a positive attitude: “People are living longer and living better lives.
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